Licensing Act 2003

I do not want to test the patience of the House by going on too long. I think that the hon. Gentleman’s village shop would be able to apply for mandatory rate relief, which should save it a significant amount more than the cost of the annual licence. We understand the vital role of village stores and have already tried to do what we can. We will continue to consider the representations from ACRE. It agreed today to come on to our high-level group and to help us further with implementing the Act. Of course, we will continue to work with the Central Council of Physical Recreation, with carnivals, with working men’s clubs, with circuses, with small village stores and with any other organisations that I may have failed to mention. The next stage of implementing the Act will come after 6 August, when we will work closely with local authorities on processing what we recognise is a late surge of applications. We have agreed with them that we will institute a national helpline to help them with that and that we will have a further wave of advertising after 6 August specifically to target people who have failed to apply by that stage. I want to put on the record my thanks to all the council officers, officials and councillors who will work very hard over the summer; we are very grateful to them. We have turned the corner. Applications are up. We have clear plans to target those who miss the 6 August deadline. We are working with local authorities to help them to process applications. We will continue to listen to individual sectors’ concerns and to address them where we can. Implementing this radical reform was always going to be a challenge, but it is a challenge worth going for. This Act will be better for local communities, better at cracking down on the irresponsible minority, cheaper and more flexible for business, and better for the responsible majority. We should not be subject to curfew because of the problems that people have with the irresponsible minority. I believe that when we look back on this Act in one or two years’ time, people will recognise that it is a much better framework of law than the one that we had. At that stage, we may even have the Conservatives coming up with a fourth position—that it was their idea all along.