draft Licensing Act 2003 (Her majesty The Queen's Birthday Licensing Hours) order 2016

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Thursday 28th April 2016 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Licensing Act 2003 (Her Majesty The Queen’s Birthday Licensing Hours) Order 2016.

May I say that there are very few Chairs as appropriate for this Committee as you, Mr Rosindell?

The order, which was laid in Parliament on 12 April, makes provision for the relaxation of licensing hours in England and Wales for the weekend of the official birthday celebrations of Her Majesty the Queen in June. I ought to start by declaring an interest: my family are publicans. Some may therefore think that my family will benefit from the order. I assure them that the Queen’s Head—of High Street, Buxton, Derbyshire, SK17 6EU, just for the record—has a licence until 1 am every Friday and Saturday, so it will not benefit from the order.

Section 172 of the Licensing Act 2003 allows the Secretary of State to make a licensing hours order to allow licensed premises to open for specified extended hours on occasions of

“exceptional international, national, or local significance”.

Licensing hours have previously been extended for the royal wedding in 2011, the diamond jubilee in 2012 and the World cup in 2014. As the Committee will be aware, Her Majesty the Queen celebrates her 90th birthday this year. The Government consider that that is a nationally significant event and that many people will wish to celebrate the occasion. For the record, the first ever Staffordshire Day, marking 1,000 years of the county of Staffordshire, will take place this weekend; the Government do not currently recognise it as a nationally significant event, but it is clearly a locally significant event for people in Staffordshire Moorlands.

The Government propose to allow premises to remain open later on the weekend of Her Majesty’s official birthday in June. The order will allow licensed premises to extend their opening hours on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 June until 1 am. It will apply to premises licences and club premises certificates in England and Wales, which license the sale of alcohol for consumption on the premises. Those premises will be allowed to remain open without having to notify the licensing authority and the police via a temporary event notice, as would usually be the case. Premises that sell alcohol for consumption off the premises, such as off-licences and supermarkets, are not covered by the order.

I hope the Committee will agree with the Government that the licensing hours order is an appropriate use of the powers conferred on the Home Secretary by the Licensing Act 2003. I commend the order to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Karen Bradley]

I thank the hon. Lady for her support for the order. I think we all share a desire to enjoy and mark the Queen’s 90th birthday and to allow people to enjoy themselves. I agree that we want to see people going out and having a good time without the fear or risk of crime. That is the work that the Government are doing across the board on the night-time economy. The more we can enjoy a safe and healthy night-time economy the better it is for all of us: better for businesses, better for residents and better for those who go out and enjoy themselves.

The hon. Lady asked why the Government had not produced an impact assessment. That is because the previous impact assessment on the World cup covered such a wide range of possibilities; we did not feel it was proportionate at this stage to produce something additional to the previous assessment, which came back with between £240,000 and £480,000, which is quite a wide spread.

I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s comments. I listened carefully to what she said about the explanatory memorandum, but I am grateful for her support.

Question put and agreed to.