Licensing Act 2003

No. In relation to the points made about the Local Government Association, may I put on record the role that local government and the Local Government Association have played overall in the implementation of the Act? It has been professional, detailed and extremely helpful. I say that from my own experience. As I said at Question Time on Monday, in the case of my trades and labour club, of which I am the honorary president, the volunteer who runs it, Alan Jackson, an ex-National Union of Public Employees steward, has got our licence through without any help from solicitors. That cost under £200, and the club has a turnover of about £500,000 a year. He admitted that it was a little difficult to start with, but once the steward’s wife helped with filling out the form, it was pretty simple. The only mistake that Sheffield trades and labour club made in its application for a licence is that while we have all these extensions, we will only be open until 5 o’clock in the morning on general election night. That is disgraceful—as we will win the next two elections, the extension ought to be until midday the following day.