Licensing Act 2003

It is legal. Good. Many people will be delighted to know that we have an answer. Equally, however, many questions remain unanswered. In relation to the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) about carnivals, the Minister has said that the Government will look into his helpful suggestion. The Minister should be aware, however, that under the current legislation a float in a carnival can legally go ahead and not require a licence, but the marching band coming behind the float is likely to be in breach of the legislation, which is why carnivals, which are often hybrids of floats and marching bands, are so concerned. The Minister agreed to look into the issue of circuses, but we still do not have clear answers. He has also agreed to look into the issue of village and community halls, but again we do not have clear examples. In relation to temporary event notices, he says that consultation on the details has not even started, and he said interestingly today that the number of events in a particular village or community hall will be considered before such a temporary event notice will be given, which will be welcomed by the House. The Government have also made a Horlicks in their failure to do much about the legislation once they got it through Parliament. The Minister has only recently been on his grand tour, having all his press conferences, having photographs taken and sending out leaflets. It was far, far too late. The Government must take much of the blame for the low take-up, not only because of the fee structure but because of the failure to publicise the legislation. Is the Minister aware of the problem in respect of theatres? We are told of a figure of 33 per cent. overall, but I have evidence that only 10 per cent. of theatres have so far applied. Will he advertise to them the need to do something? Why are so many parent-teacher associations, individual schools and others still applying in their droves to magistrates courts for licences for events that will take place after 24 November? Clearly, they have not yet been told that they need to do something differently. Why have local authorities, which were abiding by the guidance issued by the Department, only recently started to be slightly more flexible about whether they can accept application forms in the wrong colour ink? Many application forms have been rejected because they are in the wrong red ink. At long last, the Department has said that local authorities should forget the guidance that it issued, and that it was perhaps a bit over-the-top. [Interruption.] That is true, and the Minister should be aware of it. All that is not surprising, because everything was done so late in the day. The fee regulations were published on 20 January this year, only two weeks before the first appointed day, 7 February. Interestingly, as Members will know, the House did not get round to debating the fee regulations until 23 February, long after the first appointed day, which incidentally is in clear breach of the parliamentary 21-day protocol. Delay in respect of the pub use class orders also raises issues. We were told that pubs were going to be made a single class order. A press release issued on behalf of the then Minister for Housing and Planning on 27 November 2003, was entitled, ““Hill calls time on high street blight””. But when was legislation brought before the House? As we know, the Government acted 14 months later, on 21 January 2005, and yet there is clear evidence that in the intervening period there was a huge upsurge in the number of pubs and clubs on our high streets, the competition between which drove down the price of drinks and led to the development of the happy-hour culture. I genuinely believe, and I say to the Minister, that there is no evidence to suggest that the Act will help deal with binge drinking. It is clear that it is extremely uncertain that it will. It would therefore be sensible to delay implementation. The Government could and should be doing a number of things, such as providing for better labelling of alcoholic drinks, more funds for treatment of alcohol abuse and improved alcohol education in our schools—and what about at least giving the House some benchmark statistics to enable us to judge whether the Act, if implemented, will have led to the improvements that the Minister has claimed for it? We have seen no evidence of the Government’s willingness even to consider producing agreed figures of that kind. We also need to know about a minimum price policy. At present there is total confusion over the ruling of the Office of Fair Trading on whether local authorities have power to set a minimum price for drinks. The Act was rushed through, not as a result of a desire to deal with binge drinking but to pander to the youth vote, as we know from the infamous text message"““Cldnt give a XXXX for last orders? Vote Labour for xtra time.””" We know why the legislation was introduced. It was not introduced to address the issues of binge drinking. It was introduced in haste, without thought. Indeed, as the Minister said, the Government are still thinking about it now. It is full of problems, and is causing a great deal of difficulty to a great many people. It would be far better to concentrate on some of the other measures that could deal with binge drinking before implementing the Licensing Act.