Sexual Entertainment Licence Exemptions

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Westminster Hall

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Mr Howarth. I congratulate the hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay (Stephen Gilbert) on securing this debate and on setting out so clearly the current provisions and the particular problems with them that he has found in his constituency. Like him, I have never visited the establishments we are discussing; it will be interesting to hear whether the Minister has.

Lap-dancing clubs are a relatively new phenomenon in the UK, with the first clubs opening in about 1995. It has taken quite some time to refine the regime for controlling their operation. As we have heard in today’s debate, various licensing regimes have not been able to stop the proliferation of lap-dancing clubs, which is now a genuine concern for members of the public.

Although I think we are all agreed that we do not want to ban such establishments, it is quite right that the licensing regime recognises their special nature and the problems that they cause to local communities. It is perfectly understandable that people have concerns about the opening of such establishments in their local areas.

Such establishments are a part of the sex industry, and there are a number of valid reasons why people object to their existence. We have heard today about some of the problems in Newquay. I think all hon. Members would agree that it is vital for communities to have their say if and when applications are made for such clubs to open.

When such clubs first appeared in the UK in about 1995, there was no specialist licensing regime. The opening of sex shops and sex cinemas required specialist licences from the council, which had a range of powers to limit the availability of such establishments. There was also a specialist category of licence for sex encounter establishments, but that legislation applied only to London at the time. In all cases, while councils were responsible for specialist sex licences, magistrates retained powers over alcohol licensing.

That dual licensing approach was ended, as we have heard, by the Licensing Act 2003, which aimed to bring all licences for premises selling alcohol under one regulatory framework, under the direction of the local authority and guided by the four principles of licensing. They are the prevention of crime and disorder; public safety; the prevention of public nuisance; and the protection of children from harm.

While the intentions behind the 2003 Act were good, its application caused problems. There seemed to be widespread confusion as to whether a premises needed to declare adult entertainment as an integral aspect of the application and whether a council could take a position on the opening of such venues in its licensing statement. Several communities found that they could not prevent such premises from opening, and the application of the four basic licensing criteria seemed to vary extensively in relation to the opening of such establishments.

At this point I would particularly like to pay tribute to the work of my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham (Roberta Blackman-Woods) and of the campaign group Object. They did fantastic work to raise awareness of the operation of the 2003 Act regarding lap-dancing clubs and suggested a way to control such venues.

In government, Labour listened to those concerns. We realised that the 2003 Act had given rise to unforeseen consequences, and we therefore changed the law. Changes to the control of lap-dancing clubs were introduced under the Policing and Crime Act 2009 by the then-Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, and we now have the present regime.

Under the powers contained in the 2009 Act, councils could decide to designate strip clubs, lap-dancing clubs and other similar establishments as sexual entertainment venues. Those in turn were controlled under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982, in a way similar to that suggested by my hon. Friend and supported by groups such as Object.

However, the new powers are adoptive, meaning that councils may adopt them if they choose to do so. If they choose not to, lap-dancing clubs will continue to be licensed by the 2003 Act. It would be helpful if the Minister could set out how many councils have adopted the new approach. It would be interesting to know, given that the legislation was framed to give councils an option of taking that route, whether the vast majority have chosen to do so.

If councils use their discretion and adopt the new powers, both the council and local residents will have a much greater say over the operation of lap-dancing clubs. It will mean that the operation of such clubs will have to be reviewed annually; allow local people to object to the opening of a club if it is deemed inappropriate for the character of an area; and, even without objections, allow a local authority to reject an application on the basis that it is inappropriate given the nature of an area. The powers also allow a local authority to set a limit on the number of lap-dancing clubs in an area; limit the opening of such clubs to specific areas; and impose a wider set of operating conditions than can be imposed under the 2003 Act.

As I have said, it is down to councils to decide whether they want to use those powers. I am pleased to see that a number of Labour councils have been at the forefront of using the powers to ensure that local residents get a say in controlling such nightclubs. In particular, I commend Swansea’s Labour-controlled council, which has conducted an extensive consultation and decided that the maximum number of lap-dancing clubs in its city should be zero, reflecting the wishes of residents. It was interesting to hear about the situation in Newquay, with the five lap-dancing clubs before the change in legislation reduced to one using those provisions.

On the issue of infrequency and the loophole in the legislation, the hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay has set out clearly what that means on the ground to local communities. He is not alone in raising those concerns about the exemption. I would like to pay tribute to the Fawcett Society in particular, which has been highlighting that issue over a few months.

I can appreciate hon. Members’ concerns about such venues. Not only is it a concern that such venues can operate outside the normal licensing regime that other establishments have to comply with, and circumvent the controls that councils would place on their operation if they were subject to a licence, but it is understandable that people will have concerns about having lap dancing going on in, say, their local pub. The fact that such premises could be normal pubs for most of the time only makes it even more inappropriate that they are able to host such entertainment once a month.

Labour thinks that the issue needs to be reviewed and would be happy to work with the Government on that. The hon. Gentleman has suggested some positive ways of addressing the problem. I would be grateful if the Minister could tell us whether local authorities are monitoring and keeping a record of the use of the exemption. Do the Government plan to review the issue?

I look forward to what the Minister says about the matter. I know that the Government are keen to reduce regulation and do not want to see bureaucracy placed in the way of businesses; I have heard the Minister talk at length about that. However, in the present case, is he satisfied that there is sufficient regulation? I know that in recent legislation, the Government have reduced the bureaucracy relating to obtaining temporary event licences. Would he like to pursue that route, as suggested by the hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay?

The Minister, who is responsible for all licensing policy, will recall that one of the central commitments of the alcohol strategy was to rebalance the licensing regime in favour of local communities. It seems that the flouting of provisions related to the licensing of lap-dancing clubs needs to be addressed by tilting the balance back to the local community. Indeed, not only was that general claim about giving the community more power contained in the alcohol strategy, but it was followed up by the launch of a consultation that was supposedly intended to

“introduce stronger powers for local areas to control the density of licensed premises”.

Of course, that was before Lynton Crosby seemed to get involved in the whole alcohol debate, so I have a feeling that we might not be hearing much more about the alcohol strategy that the Government are to pursue, but I would be grateful if the Minister could say something about whether he is still committed to the aims that were set out just a few months ago.

Any changes that the Government have made seem to fly in the face of the commitment to give more power back to local communities. I want to raise with the Minister the announcement from the Department for Communities and Local Government, which seems to involve local communities losing their right to object to a change of use under planning law and potentially making the opportunity more available to businesses to set up lap-dancing clubs. As I understand it, they could turn a restaurant into a lap-dancing club without having to go through the normal planning applications. Would the Minister like to comment on whether that is really allowing communities to have their say?

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend again, and to my right hon. Friend the Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), for their work in relation to the “Save our High Streets” campaign, which has been so effective at highlighting the dangers of some of the Government changes, which could make the opening of lap-dancing clubs more likely. Labour is very serious about looking hard at what happened with the Licensing Act 2003 and the changes that were made more recently, and about ensuring that the law actually does what local communities want it to do. As I said, I am very willing to look, with the Minister, at ways in which we could work on a cross-party basis to ensure that that happens.

Could I deal with one other issue? I am referring to the women who work in lap-dancing clubs. Some women choose to become erotic dancers—they make that choice themselves—but, like in the rest of the sex industry, there are many people working in this part of it whose choice is not so free. We know that the sex industry is responsible for a great deal of human trafficking and modern-day slavery. The Government have spent a lot of time over the summer talking about the proposed Bill to deal with modern slavery. Any progress in that area would of course be welcomed by hon. Members on both sides of the House, but as always the detail is rather sketchy, particularly about the support for victims. Perhaps the Minister can use this opportunity today to explain how that Bill would fit with the licensing regime, what interface there would be with regard to licensed premises that are found to have women working in them who have not made that choice about entering employment in the sex industry, and how that would fit with any provisions in the modern slavery Bill.

[Mr George Howarth (in the Chair)]

The debate can run until 11 o’clock—that time is available—but in the event that it does not, I will suspend the sitting until 11 o’clock.

[The Minister of State, Home Department (Mr Jeremy Browne)]

Thank you, Mr Howarth, for that cautionary note of introduction. It is a pleasure to be guided by you.

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Stephen Gilbert) for the passionate and well-informed way in which he introduced this important debate. I had the opportunity recently to visit him in his constituency in Newquay and to see all the work that he is doing with people in the local community, volunteers, the police, the council and others on behalf of the residents of that town. It was extremely impressive for me, as a Home Office Minister, to see how hands-on my hon. Friend is in ensuring that the views of Newquay residents are well understood and acted on by the authorities in that town.

The subject that we are considering today is very specific, tightly drawn and important, particularly in areas that attract large numbers of visitors. My hon. Friend made the interesting point that the population of Newquay increases, he estimates, from 20,000 to about 100,000 over the summer. Other places in the country, particularly seaside towns, also experience that surge in visitors, which puts particular pressure on local services, and the demands of those visitors, in terms of the entertainment that they are interested in, can change the nature and character of a town during the peak visitor period compared with other times of the year. That has been a point of particular interest for my hon. Friend and, as I have said, he represents the interests of the people of Newquay extremely effectively, both in the House of Commons and in the immediate community when he is discharging his duties in Cornwall.

I want to take this opportunity to set out the legal framework for the licensing of sexual entertainment venues. My hon. Friend will be aware—indeed, he has spoken about this—of the legal framework for the licensing of such venues, which was most recently considered under the Policing and Crime Act 2009, which amended the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. The 2009 Act inserted into the 1982 Act a new category of sex establishment called a “sexual entertainment venue”, which brought the licensing of lap-dancing and pole-dancing clubs and other similar venues under the regime set out in the 1982 Act. A “sexual entertainment venue” is defined as premises at which relevant entertainment is provided, or permitted to be provided, in front of a live audience for the financial gain of the organiser or entertainer. “Relevant entertainment” may take the form of a live performance or live display of nudity and must be

“of such a nature that, ignoring financial gain, it must reasonably be assumed to be provided solely or principally for the purpose of sexually stimulating any member of the audience”.

That is the way in which parliamentary draftsmen and civil servants have sought to define this form of entertainment.

The 2009 Act set out the fact that decisions on licensing applications are best made at local level. We have touched on that during this debate, and I must say to the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson), who speaks for the official Opposition, that it is our intention to try to empower local communities. I think that it is a difficult for her to criticise the Government for being insufficiently vigilant when it comes to empowering local communities when, at the same time, she constantly criticises us for not taking a more active role in imposing the will of central Government on those local communities and local councils.

Obviously, if we give local councils room for manoeuvre, some flexibility, and the discretion to make judgments about what is in the interests of the area that they serve, they may come to different conclusions. That is the essence of local democracy. If they were all obliged by central Government to do exactly the same, there would be no point in having local elections or local consultation, because there would be one single blueprint imposed by central Government. That is a reasonable political philosophy. People on the left tend to be in favour of standardisation and centralisation, but if someone is liberally inclined, as I am and I believe the Government are, they tend to take the view that people should be given greater discretion over how they live their life and that individuals and individual communities should enjoy a degree of autonomy to make decisions in their own interest. It is not the intention of central Government to steamroller every local council or to say that in every circumstance we know best. We want elected local councillors to make decisions that they think serve their community, listening closely to the people in that community, who elect them.

Local authorities can consider whether granting a licence for a lap-dancing club would be appropriate, having regard to the character of the area and the use to which other premises in the vicinity are put. We believe that that is the right approach. For example, a local authority may decide that it would be inappropriate to grant a licence for a lap-dancing club in a residential area or next door to a school. That remains the Government’s position: local areas are best suited to decide what is appropriate and manageable for their area, taking into account local characteristics and community concerns.

[Diana Johnson]

I am listening carefully to the Minister. Can he give us any idea of the number of local authorities that have decided to use the enabling provisions to adopt that approach?