Licensees slam events red-tape

Licensees in London are fighting police efforts to have details of every live music or entertainment event staged in a pub recorded in a bid to step up security.

The document, Form 696, has been slammed as unnecessary red-tape by protestors and nearly 12,000 campaigners have signed a petition on the Prime Minister's website calling for the forms to be scrapped.

Licensee Henry Conlon from the Dublin Castle in Camden said: " We have sometimes up to six bands playing every night and it would be completely impractical for us to record information about all of them."

The forms require that licensees provide the names, ages and contact details of performers and other information such as the style of music and the target audience. Police also expect an after-promotion debrief.

Henry feels such information could lead to discrimination against performers and their fans. "We don't know what the protocols are for dealing with the information. If a performer has once been arrested he could be black marked. That would be bad for the music scene and for music lovers, the majority of which are law abiding citizens."

Stuart Strong, licensee of the Barfly, also in Camden, believes the measures could help pubs protect their customers but that too much detail is required.

He said: "I think that having to fill out a form for every event is a bit obsessive and time consuming. And I don't think it is necessary to fill out a debriefing form unless an actual incident has occurred."

The forms are voluntary but councils are allowed to force selected venues to fill in the forms as a condition of their licence.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police confirmed that some councils had already chosen to make the forms compulsory for problem venues in their boroughs.

"If licence holders complete these forms it helps us to identify any security problems, manage them and, in doing so, reduce crime and disorder," he said.