Licensing Hours Extensions Bill

Nickie Aiken Excerpts

3rd reading
Friday 17th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Nickie Aiken (Cities of London and Westminster) (Con)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) on the success of her private Member’s Bill, and I am delighted to join colleagues from across the House in speaking in favour of its provisions. The United Kingdom is a nation that likes to support our national teams and our chosen football teams. For any sporting or ceremonial event, whether the Olympics, the Paralympics, the football World cup, the Euros, the Ashes, coronations or royal weddings—I could go on —when our teams, our sportspeople and our royalty are doing well, we want to support them. And where better to support them and celebrate than in our local pub or sports or social club? These are venues where we want to share our joys and woes, often with like-minded people. That is why this Bill to provide a blanket extension of licensing hours makes sense—to allow people to gather to mark an occasion of exceptional international, national or local significance.

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about moments of celebration in pubs. She represents the Cities of London and Westminster, and I expect that she has the most pubs in any single constituency. While it may be unfair for her to single out just one, I wonder whether there is a particular sporting occasion, or other occasion of joy, where she has—certainly—enjoyed that in a pub locally.

[Nickie Aiken]

There have actually been far too many to be able to name them. As my right hon. Friend says, there are so many amazing venues in my constituency. I think that, at my last count, we had 13,000 licensed premises in Westminster alone, and as a former licensing chair of Westminster Council, the largest licensing authority in the country, I can say with some authority that we have amazing licensed premises here.

As the hon. Member for South Shields says, the alternative to this Bill is to go with temporary event notices, which are used for individual businesses looking to extend their hours. I know, from my experience as a licensing chair, that those are a bureaucratic nightmare for licensing authorities—especially for a city centre such as Westminster, central Manchester, Birmingham or wherever—and the £21 charge never matches the cost of the administration of those temporary event notices. This Bill will do away with that time-consuming bureaucracy.

In practice, the blanket extension orders go unopposed, and the public are often in favour of proposed licensing hours extensions. Some 85% of respondents to the consultation were in favour of an extension for this year’s Euros, and 77% were in favour of one during the King’s coronation.

Another important point to make is that there is a massive, vital economic benefit from this Bill. Pubs and late-night venues in my constituency employ more than 22,000 people and turn over £1 billion each year; it is the No. 1 constituency for turnover, and economic value, from the hospitality industry in the UK. That is just in central London, but pubs and other venues play a vital role in the local economy of every part of the United Kingdom. The Bill will support them. We know the hospitality industry has had a tough time over the past five years.

While I welcome making the process to extend opening hours easier, it is important to remember that such extensions will see an increase in the consumption of alcohol. Sadly, often, that will result in an increase in antisocial behaviour and disturbances for residents. The extension order for the 2020 Euros final allowed for an extra 45 minutes of serving time. However, for the 2024 Euros, the Government consultation proposed extending licensing hours by two hours, meaning many pubs will close at 1 am.

I am sure everyone in the House agrees that we do not want to see a repeat of what happened during the 2020 Euros, when Trafalgar Square, in my constituency, was the scene of some very unruly behaviour, including excess drinking and revellers climbing on buildings and buses. It was an absolute nightmare. I am aware of residents’ concerns about the current licensing application for the fanzone for this year’s Champions League final, which will allow up to 20,000 people to gather in Trafalgar Square and a further 30,000 in Victoria Embankment Gardens.

[Mrs Lewell-Buck]

I thank the hon. Member for her fulsome support for my Bill. I stress to her and to the House that there will be continued consultation with the police and local authorities, even when the regulations in the Bill are in play. We are simply changing the parliamentary process, not the process that happens outside this place. I want to give her that assurance.

[Nickie Aiken]

I absolutely accept that point. I just want to take the opportunity to ensure we do not forget that, in my constituency in central London, we have a massive and vital hospitality industry, which employs tens of thousands of people, but we also have residents living cheek by jowl with those premises, many of them in social housing. I visited a social housing block in Mayfair last week. People do not expect to see social housing in places like that, but we have social housing in Mayfair, Belgravia, Soho and Marylebone, and it is important we do not forget that.

The UK should take pride in hosting internationally renowned competitions, such as the Euros and the Champions League final, and make provision for those seeking to celebrate them. I understand why the Government and the Greater London Authority want to have fanzones, but I am also aware that local councillors, businesses and residents in the St James’s ward object to the licensing application for the fanzone on the basis that the venue and location are wholly unsuitable. Local residents are particularly sad because they feel that there has been a lack of consultation in the process.

I note what the hon. Member for South Shields says about the Bill being about the parliamentary process, which is why I support it. In this day and age, it is ridiculous that we have had to have the House of Commons and the other place agree to extending licensing hours for an hour, or whatever, just for one day, so I appreciate and support the changes in the Bill. However, we have to remember the knock-on effect of extended licensing on the police and local councils.

When the licensing hours were extended for the 2020 Euros, we saw huge amounts of waste and litter across the west end. Westminster City Council collected 20 tonnes of waste over 19 hours during and after the historic England versus Italy final, with the use of 20 vehicles. As ever, I take my hat off to the cleansing services of Westminster City Council: they deliver every time we have a major celebration or protest. They clean up and people would never think anything had happened. However, such events put a strain on local authority spending, particularly in Westminster, where we are not provided with extra Government funding to undertake the cleansing after those special events. Again, I know that the Metropolitan police spend a lot of time and resources putting in extra police officers to police these events.

I note what the hon. Member for South Shields said. It is crucial that police and local authorities are provided with the guidance and support they need during national celebrations and moments of national significance when licensing hours are extended. For my long-term goal, we need to make sure that residents living close to hospitality venues and those within licensed hours are considered in any extension. I absolutely accept that the consultation system is not changing under the Bill, which I welcome.

I welcome the Bill, which I see as a move to simplify the process of extending licensing hours within the parliamentary process when needed. I look forward to seeing the Bill complete its journey through this and the other place.

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to stand in support of the Bill on Third Reading. I commend and congratulate the hon. Member for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck), who has navigated this important Bill, which, though small, will have a significant impact on the wellness and joy of people throughout England and Wales. She came into the House in a by-election in 2013 and has always made a positive impact. She has, of course, been diligent in her constituency work, but I hope she will be toasted in every pub the next time a licence is used in the way introduced by this change in law.

The Licensing Act 2003 was important legislation. The reason for that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Nickie Aiken) set out, is that while we want hospitality to thrive in many ways, for people living very near a pub or other venues, those venues can have a big impact on their lives. That is why the processes that are gone through are important. I do not know the rationale for deciding, more than 20 years ago, that it was important to make this particular legislation via the affirmative resolution procedure, but it is sensible and pragmatic streamlining to switch to the negative resolution procedure.

This simple legislative change will not make bureaucracy a thing of the past; it is important that the appropriate procedures go through. However, we often think about how Parliament needs to be in touch with the challenges that people have. It may not be the greatest challenge in the world that a pub cannot open longer for a particular event, but when we try to explain to people that the reason such a change cannot be made is that Parliament is not sitting because it is having a summer break, there is an element of, “Let’s look at that again.” That is why the hon. Member for South Shields was wise to pick up and work with the Government on this modest change.

On the negative resolution procedure more broadly, within Parliament, and in particular the other House, I would say there has been an anti-negative resolutions revolution in the passing of secondary legislation. About 80% of our regulations are made through the negative route. There will be a variety of reasons as to why it is unpopular for certain aspects, partly because, if people object to those statutory instruments, although there is quite a systematic process, it is not always easy to get a particular vote on it, particularly in this House. One thing it has done is to clog up a lot of parliamentary activity, with more and more time being spent on modest pieces of legislation that really do not need further consideration, apart from the wisdom of discussions or debates that could be had outside of what is quite a formal parliamentary process. That is why I think this matters.

I appreciate that my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster might not want to single one pub out in her constituency. For what it is worth, I live in her constituency when I am carrying out my parliamentary duties, and I go to the White Swan on Vauxhall Bridge Road to watch sport. I think it is really good. It has a fantastic TikTok account. Don’t worry, I am not expecting a free Guinness—I would not abuse my position in that way. I had hoped to be having moments of joy this Sunday, with Liverpool winning the Premier League. Sadly, that is not going to be the case, and I expect we will end up third, but I am going to a Liverpool fans’ pub in London in the afternoon with some friends. It is that sense of community and of coming together that really matters.

Covid has had so many impacts on our country: not just the huge amount of investment that was put in, which we are now paying for across the UK, but what it did to community and the anxious generation we now have of people who interact solely on something like this phone—I am using it to look at the legislation today. For me, what is critical is not just drowning our sorrows by going to a pub, but that sense of occasion. I remember the joy of some of the sporting events I have been lucky enough to go to in person. That sort of joy can be replicated, and it need not necessarily be in a pub; it can be in a community hall or at other sorts of temporary events. However, it is vital, not only for economic reasons, but for genuine societal reasons, that we make it as straightforward as possible for Parliament to allow these things to happen. While we still have a moderate amount of regulation in recognising what licensing conditions may apply and what concerns local residents or businesses may have, I come back to my original point: this simple change, meaning that it does not matter whether Parliament is sitting, is the key element of this legislation.

I am going to be shameless and name a few more pubs in my constituency. I forgot to do so in discussing previous bits of legislation. I even served on the hon. Member for South Shields’ Bill Committee and did not do it. I cannot name them all, but I have been to every single pub in my constituency; that is the reason I won the beer parliamentarian of the year award over a decade ago, and still have the mug to prove it—though I can assure you, Mr Deputy Speaker, there is no beer in the Chamber today. But who knows? We might crack on over in the Strangers Bar if it is open later, to toast the hon. Lady’s success in getting the Bill through this House.

We undoubtedly have a lot of events in Europe coming up, but it is important to recognise our international community here in this country and people’s desire not only to watch sports here, of course, but to watch sporting events with their home teams in different parts of the world. I had better not get into too much trouble by naming loads of pubs, but—

[Nickie Aiken]

My right hon. Friend is making a very excellent speech. She asked me for my favourite watering hole in my constituency. I think it is only fair, surely, that she names one pub that she went to.

[Dr Coffey]

Of course there is the Felixstowe Conservative Club, which is very good in that regard, but I must admit that when I go to watch sports, I have been to the Douglas Bader in Martlesham Heath and I love going to the Anchor in Woodbridge. My first home was in a village called Westleton, where I used to go to the White Horse Inn a lot. There are just so many. Not all of them show football, and I must do better in ensuring that I get down to many more pubs in Felixstowe, where that does seem to happen.

However, I will continue to champion and go around pubs, and I now have a great excuse, with the hon. Member for South Shields’ Bill, to explain why Parliament is going to make life for our hospitality sector a lot easier. We have a great brewery and pub chain called Adnams in Southwold in my constituency. Adnams still owns a lot of pubs, some managed, some tenanted, and I hope it will take full advantage of this great opportunity. So without further ado, I am really pleased to be here on a Friday to support this legislation, I am sure the Lords will toast it as well, and I look forward to sharing a glass or two in the Strangers Bar later today.