Key Messages
· The LGA Group, and councils, have worked closely with government, the live music industry and the licensed trade to make it easier for both performers and premises to put on live music within the current licensing regime.

Many of the objections to the proposed exemption contained in this LGA Group submission apply equally to the incidental exemption, which has been part of the Act since its introduction.

There is no evidence that the LGA Group has worked closely with anyone since this introduction, to ensure that live music was made easier by the use of this exemption. Even when many Licensing Authorities were experiencing difficulty in understanding how to make any practical use of this exemption, it was only in November 2009 that the LGA group (along with others) made any serious attempt at this.

It is partly because of the failure of the LGA Group to recognise the existence of the incidental exemption, before it was too late, that the current proposal is now thought to be necessary.

Perhaps the LGA group may have considered the incidental exemption to be as "unworkable in practice and a disproportionate" as they now consider the proposed exemption to be in this submission?

Perhaps this was the reason why they waited some four years before making any serious attempt to issue guidance to Licensing Authorities to ensure that live music was made easier by the use of this exemption?

This was less a case of bolting the door after the horse has bolted - more a case of the horse starving to death waiting for the door to be unlocked. Many of the premise which could have benefited from this exemption, were either forced to obtain Entertainment Permission or have long ago given up on the idea of providing any form of live music.

There is also no evidence that the LGA Group has worked closely with anyone since this introduction, to ensure that the provision of small scale non-amplified live music was made easier by the use of S 177. In fact, the LGA Group insist on continuing with regulation which makes no distinction between non-amplified and amplified live music and which places non-amplified live music at risk when it presents no risk to the licensing objectives.

ENDS