Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill

My Lords, as we have heard, currently licensing authorities are expected to grant applications or variations to licences unless they receive relevant representations about the impact of such an application on the promotion of the licensing objectives. Licensing authorities must also be able to establish that the decisions which they take are necessary for the promotion of the licensing objectives. We consider that the requirement on a licensing authority to demonstrate that its actions are necessary places a significant evidential burden on it to demonstrate that no lesser steps would suffice. I am very grateful to my noble friend Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville for the interesting and apposite example he gave of the legal challenge and how that impacted on authorities in his area. The purpose of the clauses is to replace the requirement on licensing authorities to take actions that are ““necessary”” with a requirement that their actions are ““appropriate”” for the promotion of the licensing objectives set out in the Licensing Act 2003. In making this change we are lowering the evidential hurdle which licensing authorities must meet when making decisions under the Licensing Act, including, for example, imposing conditions on licences. Most respondents to our public consultation supported our proposal, but were keen to ensure that appropriate safeguards were in place to ensure that all decisions were fair. While the evidential threshold is being lowered, licensing authorities' determinations will still have to be evidence based. We will revise the statutory guidance to provide licensing authorities with advice on how to determine whether an action is appropriate. From the discussion that we have had this evening, I appreciate that we are dealing with language, without being able to put specific examples to the words that we are using. A decision which is appropriate for the promotion of the licensing objectives remains a decision which can be taken into account only as a factor in the promotion of these objectives—and no factors outside those parameters. My noble friend Lady Hamwee mentioned the reasonableness test. I bow to her knowledge as a lawyer. I understand that the word ““reasonable”” has legal connotations. I would be off piste if I said now that the reasonable test would apply, but I think I understand what she means by that recommendation. Certainly in discussing the statutory guidance, we will work with licensing authorities to ensure that the statutory guidance sets out clearly how this new provision can be applied in practice and that it still meets the criteria about being evidence based. That would give fairness. I do not know whether, in the context of the legal meaning of the word, that would be interpreted by the noble Baroness as reasonable. I hope it would be. Our objective is to empower licensing authorities to take steps which will help to address alcohol-related crime and disorder and nuisance in our local communities. We strongly believe that licensing authorities should have greater powers and flexibility to tackle premises that are acting irresponsibly and respond to the concerns of local people and businesses. We have heard a lot about businesses and I quite understand why noble Lords have raised the matter, as businesses are an integral part of the process. Equally, we have to take into account the concerns of business. In lowering the burden of proof in this way, we are giving licensing authorities greater flexibility to take decisions based on local needs and priorities. We made a commitment in the coalition agreement to overhaul the Licensing Act to give local authorities much stronger powers to remove licences from or refuse to grant licences to any premises that are causing problems. Our objective is to empower licensing authorities to take steps which will help to address alcohol-related crime and disorder and nuisance in our local communities, while maintaining the appropriate safeguards for fairness and objective decision-making. I believe that we have got the balance right.