Licensing Act 2003 (Liaison Committee Report)

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Wednesday 17th May 2023 Grand Committee

Moved by

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering]

That the Grand Committee takes note of the Report from the Liaison Committee The Licensing Act 2003: post-legislative scrutiny Follow-up report (2nd Report, HL Paper 39).

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to debate this report and I thank all who will be contributing this afternoon, especially my noble friend the Minister. I look forward to noble Lords’ contributions to the debate.

It was an honour to chair the original inquiry and serve with such distinguished colleagues on the committee. This was a timely opportunity to review the Licensing Act 2003, which transformed the legal regime governing the sale of alcohol, replacing licensing provisions across 10 statutes and unifying them in one Act. The Act liberalised alcohol licensing and transferred authority for licensing from the judicial system to local authorities, establishing licensing committees to make decisions on enforcing the provisions of the Act.

I declare my interests in the register as the non-executive chair of the National Proof of Age Standards Scheme—PASSCO CIC—and as a non-practising member of the Faculty of Advocates.

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[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

I thank all those who made this inquiry possible, especially the members of the Liaison Committee, who kindly agreed to a follow-up report on our original inquiry. I also thank our original clerk, Michael Collon; our specialist adviser, Sarah Clover; and all the committee staff on our follow-up inquiry, including Christopher Clarke, Heather Fuller, Philippa Tudor and Hannah Murdoch. I express our gratitude to the witnesses for their extremely helpful evidence.

The report focuses on specific areas: the co-ordination of licensing and planning systems; the agent of change principle; training; access to licensed premises for disabled people; the night-time economy; the pricing and taxation of alcohol; the sale of alcohol airside at airports; application systems; and the national database for personal licence holders. The work of the committee straddled two principal departments: the Home Office and what is now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. We are grateful to the Ministers of those departments for engaging with us.

Although it was not focusing on the impact of Covid-19 on licensed premises, the committee was mindful from the evidence that it heard of the effects of Covid on the hospitality sector and the night-time economy.

The Government responded to our follow-up report in November 2022. I must express a degree of disappointment that they were unable to support many of our conclusions and recommendations, particularly with regard to co-ordinating licensing and planning systems and the agent of change principle, but also on disabled access. The committee recommended that the existing law be amended to require that an application for a premises licence should be accompanied by a disabled access and facilities statement. I ask my noble friend the Minister for a progress report on both this aspect and the review to Part M of the building regulations, as well as on the timescale for finalising and implementing any changes. In particular, will the provisions be extended to the accessibility of existing premises? Also, following the welcome appointment of the disability and access ambassador, has there been any significant change to access?

I also press my noble friend to confirm whether a national working group relating to the night-time economy has been established, as the Government promised, to look at reducing alcohol-related offending. If so, who sits on it, and where can information on it be found?

On training, the Government undertook to discuss with training providers whether additional signposting could be included in the Section 182 guidance and to continue to support efforts to ensure that all those involved in licensing work are trained accordingly. Can my noble friend update us on progress, and, equally, on the rollout for training for police licensing officers?

Regarding the sale of alcohol airside, the Government rejected the committee’s request to review its decision not to proceed with licensing airside within three years. Given the potential toxic mix of excessive alcohol consumption and air rage, will my noble friend revisit this decision?

It is highly recommended that the Government do a formal review of the impact of minimum unit pricing across Scotland and Wales.

UKHospitality has made some powerful comments regarding the late-night levy regulations being repealed and supports the committee recommendations that the Government should consult with industry and interested parties on the efficacy of the levy, suggesting that these powers be removed unless meaningful benefits are identified.

When do the Government expect to publish their response to the recent consultation under the Policing and Crime Act 2017?

The Institute of Licensing has called for the agent of change principle to be adopted into the Section 182 guidance to ensure that licensing guidance reflects the National Planning Policy Framework. In the debate on the levelling-up Bill on Monday 24 April, the Minister, my noble friend Lady Scott, said in response to an amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Henig, the noble Lord, Lord Foster, who is present today, and me, that

“the Government agree that co-ordination between the planning and licensing regimes is crucial to protect those businesses in practice. This is why in December 2022 the Home Office published a revised version of its guidance, made under Section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003, cross-referencing the relevant section of the National Planning Policy Framework for the first time”.

The passage that I quote now is the most significant. Crucially, she went on to say:

“we will make sure that our policy results in better protections for these businesses and delivers on the agent of change principle in practice … the Government’s policies embed the agent of change principle and … we will continue to make sure it is reflected in planning and licensing decisions in future”.—[Official Report, 24/4/23; col. 995.]

I raise this as the sense and meaning of that passage is not entirely clear from either the levelling-up Bill or my noble friend Lady Scott’s comments. Any clarification would be appreciated. Do my noble friend’s comments indicate that the Government might bring forward an amendment to the levelling-up Bill in this regard? That would be most welcome.

There are three other issues relating to the agent of change principle. The first is inadequacy of policy. The agent of change principle is found only in policy, in the National Planning Policy Framework and, since December 2022, in the Secretary of State’s Section 182 licensing guidance, both in identical terms:

“Planning policies and decisions should ensure that new development can be integrated effectively with existing businesses and community facilities (such as places of worship, pubs, music venues and sports clubs)”,


et cetera.

The policy is inadequate because it is ambiguous. Currently, the language makes it clear that the policy is necessarily vague in order to be flexible in various circumstances. Terms such as “effectively”, “unreasonable” and “suitable” present challenges for all parties and decision-makers as they attempt to define what the precise meaning should be in any given case. Developers are likely to be in a superior position to argue their case than the existing businesses, who may not have a seat at the negotiating table at all.

In the amendment that we tabled in Committee, we attempted to ensure that statutory provisions will be defined so as to reduce this ambiguity. The proposed amendment sets out concrete expectations, such as the mandatory preparation of noise reports where existing businesses are identified.

The second reason for addressing this inadequacy of policy relates to planning balance. As in any policy area, a balance must be reached between competing interests. Planning and licensing policies compete with each other in a balancing exercise—literally called the “planning balance” in the NPPF. The decision-maker must place weight on the competing policies on a case- by-case basis.

Finally, this should be mandatory. Existing businesses may not even be aware that a planning application that potentially affects them has been made to the local planning authority. Local planning authorities are very dependent on consultees drawing relevant matters to their attention. Decision-makers may be unaware of any “unreasonable restrictions” that might be placed on existing businesses as a result of the decision that they are about to make. Therefore, in my view, this amendment is key to the future agent of change being properly understood and applied.

In conclusion, I return to one of our key recommendations: co-ordination between licensing and planning systems. May I press my noble friend the Minister to clarify what changes have been implemented to improve the co-ordination of these systems?

I am delighted to recommend this report to the Committee and beg to move.

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[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

I am grateful to everyone for their contributions, particularly my noble friend for his full response. It seems as though we have had a lot of consultations and workshops, but my noble friend will have picked up, in the mood of the Grand Committee, that we are calling for action.

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Foster, for emphasising the importance of the Select Committees and the follow-up reports of the Liaison Committee, because, particularly in this instance, they were timely reviews of the Licensing Act.

My noble friend Lord Holmes of Richmond spoke very powerfully on disabled access, as did others. I think every contributor mentioned it. It is unfortunate that we have not yet achieved this; an application for a premises license is still not accompanied by a disabled access and facilities statement. It is the mood of the Committee that that should take place.

Also, the Minister referred to the review under Part M of the building regulations, but he did not actually say whether it will be extended to the accessibility of existing premises. I would be grateful, if there is an opportunity, for him to confirm that in a letter following this. My noble friend Lord Holmes of Richmond also pointed out that reducing the deadline to two weeks for the licensing of premises is weakening the ability of vulnerable and disabled people to respond.

The noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, asked what is in it for local authorities too. I think I remember reading somewhere that there might be an additional fee, but I am not at liberty to say that, so perhaps my noble friend the Minister could reply on that point—although I realise that it is a different department to his own.

All speakers mentioned the training, so we will obviously follow that very closely. The Minister referred to the working group which is being set up. As all speakers, I think, said they were interested in that, a signpost as to where it is would be very helpful indeed.

I am very mindful that young people’s contribution to this economy is huge. I say that having started off my working life as a waitress and my student life as a part-time barmaid—with disastrous results; I do not think I was destined to be full time. As the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, said, we are all very mindful of the fact that, during Covid, there was huge disruption there.

My noble friend Lord Smith mentioned the role of working clubs, and I am delighted to be an honorary president of Pickering Conservative club. Others, such as the Royal British Legion club, play a fantastic role in this regard, particularly in rural communities. I hope that we have strengthened the will of both the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in this regard.

There was a real appetite in this debate for the agent of change principle to be enshrined on a statutory basis. We had some expert advice from the Institute of Licensing from two very powerful witnesses, so, if we achieve nothing else, we should achieve a statutory basis for that. I hope that there is still time for my noble friend Lady Scott to bring such an amendment forward. I am grateful for having the opportunity to rehearse these arguments again, and I commend the Motion.

Motion agreed.