No mention of licensing issues

27-Sep-2011 - Last updated on 11-Mar-2017 at 23:32 GMT

Coulson: plans are likely to be complicated by new de-regulation pland for entertainment

As I predicted, the final stages of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill were taken up with a last-ditch attempt to derail the Government’s proposals for elected commissioners of police and the licensing aspects were not touched upon at all.

This was always the likely outcome since before the summer recess, because any amendments on licensing reform had been stoutly resisted and the whole package remained unscathed, both in the Commons and in the Lords.

Several lessons can be learned from this. The first is that, faced with a coalition policy imperative, practical arguments are of little effect. There were numerous lawyers pointing to the flaws in the Government’s proposals and the imbalance the amendments will bring (the word ‘re-balancing’ has clearly obtained a new dictionary definition).

But the decisions had already been taken and only a few well-briefed peers were in a position to make their points. In particular, the committee stage in the Commons was a huge disappointment, with the opposition seemingly in accord with most of the principles of town-hall control the Home Office was proposing. So a bit of an easy ride there.

Secondly, with such a controversial measure as police reform (that led to a tied vote in the closing stages in the Lords last week), licensing was always going to take a back seat and have little or no time for debate.

The lack of any late amendments showed a multi-purpose Bill like this is an unreasonable way for Parliament to express its wishes, and a stand-alone Licensing Reform Bill would have been a better idea.

What we now have is a set of changes likely to be complicated by the new de-regulation proposals on entertainment, but a long lead time before implementation, so that everyone can get used to the new ideas. This is a great opportunity for the licensed trade to get up to speed on what will be involved and to look at the practical effects of the legislation in terms of the relationship with local councils.

It would be great if more of them recognised the difficult times the licensed trade is having and did not seek to extend the bureaucracy of licensing, targeting only those premises causing trouble. They have been given the powers, but should not use them indiscriminately. That’s the message that needs to get across.