The Stage

Music and circus industry campaigners welcome MPs’ calls to relax licensing laws

Published Tuesday 19 May 2009 at 15:50 by Lalayn Baluch

Music and circus industry campaigners have cautiously welcomed calls made by MPs for licensing laws to be relaxed.

Last week, the Culture, Media and Sport select committee published its report on the Licensing Act 2003. The long-awaited publication criticised the law for “hampering” live gigs and treating music as a “disruptive activity” which led to public disorder.

The committee recommended the ‘two in a bar rule’ - which prior to the legislation had allowed venues to host performances by one or two musicians without a permit - be reintroduced for unamplified gigs, and called for an exemption to be created for venues with a capacity of up to 200 people.

It also recommended that the Metropolitan Police’s controversial risk assessment Form 696, which many believe is discriminatory against certain genres of music such as hip hop, be scrapped.

Musicians’ Union general secretary John Smith said he “broadly” welcomed the recommendations. He said: “We are particularly pleased that they have recognised the need for an exemption to the licensing act for small venues. We are grateful to the committee for highlighting many of the issues that we raised when we gave evidence.”

Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of umbrella body UK Music, said the licensing act hindered live music at a “grass roots” level, and called on the government to take action on the committee’s recommendations “as a matter of urgency”.

Live music campaigner Hamish Birchall added: “The two in a bar rule [was previously] applied to both amplified and unamplified performances by one or two musicians. So the recommendation to reinstate two in a bar for just unamplified performance is only a partial reinstatement.

“In any event, the exemption for small gigs would probably cure most of the problems that have been experienced. Whether government accepts it or not is another matter.”

Meanwhile, the report called on Whitehall to introduce a single “portable” licence for circuses, in order to cut down on the financial and administrative burdens placed on touring artists. The document also accepted that the circus industry had not been given sufficient consultation when the licensing act was created.

The news was welcomed by Malcolm Clay, secretary of the Association of Circus Proprietors, who said: “I am pleased that the committee recommended one single license for circus, which will abolish the need for a different licence for every town. One note of caution is that this is the committee’s recommendation at this stage and isn’t government policy.”

He also warned that a single licence would only work if the circuses were allowed to give short notice periods to local authorities to book a new site. He explained many companies were struggling with the current 28-day notice period, which forced them to cancel shows and incur financial losses when sites were withdrawn at the last minute.