Of course, assuming the school is “in the know” on licensing matters (I hate to throw my weight around with the governors on the legalities of charging for tickets for the nativity), the voluntary donation it is seeking from parents is quite legal.
However, next Christmas I suspect I am going to be made to fork out for tickets now that the first part of the deregulation of Schedule 1 of the Licensing Act 2003 should, by then, be in place, so that performances of dance, plays (a dramatic piece — if you can describe a nativity play performed by 30 seven-year-olds in this way), and indoor sports will be de-regulated, provided the audience limits are not exceeded and the hours that the entertainment is provided fall between 8am and 11pm.
For performances of dance and my children’s school nativity, that will mean an audience of up to 500 and, for indoor sports, an audience of up to 1,000. We understand that the deregulation, which will be by way of a statutory instrument, should be in place by June/July.
Therefore, there will be no requirement for a premises licence, club premises certificate or temporary event notice to provide such entertainment, as long as the audience limits are not exceeded and the entertainment takes place between 8am and 11pm.
This will be of particular benefit to schools, local charities and community organisations, which should have sought such permissions to hold these forms of regulated entertainment in the past. It was clearly nonsensical to require a school to obtain such a permission where a “profit” was being made from the performance, as opposed to when it was simply designed to break even, when no licensing permission was required.
General ignorance
So are these changes likely to result in hundreds of noise complaints and enforcement action? Unlikely, in my view, particularly with a limit of 11pm.
Having spoken at a number of training courses recently, it seems from licensing and police officers that there is a general ignorance from licence holders about the provisions of the Live Music Act 2012, and the same is likely to be the case with these pending changes.
The move has to be welcomed by educational, charity and community organisations as these will no longer have to go through the administrative burden (if they ever did) of applying for the necessary permissions. Such low-level forms of entertainment finishing at 11pm are very unlikely to result in any enforcement action.
But what of those publicans and licensed premises that are in the know, and realise that they can now put on a darts tournament, advertise it, and get various former darts champions along to play in an exhibition match? What will happen to conditions on the premises licence where such an event is taking place, but it is no longer “regulated” by the Licensing Act 2003 prior to 11pm?
Unlike the Live Music Act 2012, the draft order will not disapply any conditions on the premises licence while this entertainment is taking place.
Therefore, a condition such as “all doors and windows (other than for access or egress) will remain closed” would still apply during the darts match, although a condition that states “all doors and windows (other than for access and egress) will remain closed during regulated entertainment” will not apply until 11pm or once the audience in the pub (yes, it’s a big pub) exceeds 999.
I personally feel that we will see very little impact of the pending changes. I would suggest few licensed premises put on such forms of entertainment in the first place, and many that do may be ignorant of the changes.
With that in mind, if the Live Music Act 2012 is anything to go by there is little in terms of enforcement for local authorities to worry about. Of course, there are always the exceptions and, as “intelligence” spreads and licensed premises do find opportunities to use the benefits of the deregulation, that may change.
What should happen, however, is that parents will be faced with an additional expense at Christmas with schools, quite rightly in my opinion, being able to sell tickets so that parents can “enjoy” their loved ones blasting out Good King Wenceslas on the recorder.