Concerns over live music in pubs has brought the government to a head-on collision with the House of Lords over the Licensing Bill.
The House of Commons has rejected a demand put forward by peers that all small entertainment venues should be exempt from requiring licences for live music. This sets to leave the bill stuck between the two houses until a compromise can be made over the issue.
It is thought that this issue is the only one preventing the bill becoming law and it is rumoured that the House of Lords is set to make a stand when it is discussed again next week.
The government wanted to scrap the existing two-in-a-bar rule, which allows up to two performers to appear in pubs without the need for a licence. The fear for many licensees and performers is that scrapping this rule could be costly and would spell the end of live music in pubs.
The House of Lords has taken these concerns on board and defied the government by adding an amendment to the bill to exempt premises where live music plays to an audience of less than 200 and finishes before 11.30pm.
While the government has offered to exempt these premises from two of the four reasons for not granting music licences - public nuisance and the protection of children, licensees would still have to apply for a licence and meet requirements on public safety and prevention of crime and disorder.
The British Beer & Pub Association has called on the government to compromise over the issue.
Mark Hastings, spokesman of the British Beer & Pub Association, said: "This is a situation of confusion to chaos. We have not got a working formula over live music at the moment.
"The government and other parties need to apply some common sense to allow thousands of pubs to carry on with incidental music. The industry should be allowed to keep the two-in-a bar rule."
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Government could be forced to back down over live music (24 June 2003)