Policing and Crime Bill

As has been said, Amendment 86B would remove the words "ignoring financial gain". The purpose of including these words in the definition is to account for the fact that, first and foremost, the purpose of sex encounter venues is financial gain. Therefore it is necessary to ignore this aspect of the business when assessing whether the entertainment provided is solely or principally for the purpose of sexually stimulating any member of the audience. Whether it is financial gain to the performer or, more likely, financial gain to the performer and the club owner, there is a requirement to ignore that in order to make a fair assessment of whether the entertainment provided is solely or principally for the purpose of sexually stimulating any member of the audience. The effect of this amendment would be that, irrespective of the nature of the entertainment provided, premises would not be considered a sex encounter venue as long as the operator could prove that the purpose of the entertainment was solely or principally for gain. Obviously, this would be easily demonstrated, because they are running sex clubs only for gain, and therefore, these provisions would be left ineffective by the inability to cover such venues—hence the need to leave aside the question of gain. The effect of this amendment would be to provide a loophole for sex encounter venues to avoid the need for a sex encounter licence. I expect that this was a probing amendment—at least, I hope that it was—and I hope that I have shown why the inclusion of the provision to ignore financial gain is correct and the undoubted unintended consequences if this phrase was removed. On that basis, I hope the noble Viscount will withdraw the amendment.