Letter as published in The Dorset Echo 18 February 2004.

'Hamstrung councillors to protest to Government over current legislation ' said the Echo headline above a report (February 10) about the latest Weymouth and Portland Borough Council licensing committee discussion about public entertainment licenses.

I attended the meeting and having heard the officer's advice to councillors I can well understand the confusion reported and the call for 'clarification'

However, I question that the councillors are hamstrung - by legislation or the Government. They were presented with an extract from Hansard, from the proceedings of Monday, December 11, 2000 that made it clear that the matter was one for the licensing committee to decide.

From the House of Lords on that date, it reads: The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Bassam of Brighton): My Lords, Section 182 of the Licensing Act 1964 exempts licensed premises from the need to obtain a public entertainment licence where the entertainment provided consists of music and singing by not more than two performers. Whether members of the public who sing on licensed premises count as performers is a matter for the licensing authority to decide, [*…….…*]. Ultimately, the compatibility of this provision with the European Convention on Human Rights would be a matter for the courts to determine.

So in reference to who is regarded as a performer, whatever the council's advising officers may have said, I suggest that it is not right to say that the definition was set in law and was a matter for courts to decide, rather than members of the committee.

The definition is NOT set in law. The legislation itself does NOT define what a performer is, and the leading expert on licensing law advises that there is NO case law that has legally determined the word.

Most worrying is that officers also advise that the law does not allow the council any discretion in this process. This means that if you and two friends were to insist on singing the National Anthem every Friday night you could be considered (along with possibly every other pub customer present) as performers in a public entertainment. The officers would claim that your singing will have automatically made the pub unsafe and if the licensee did not stop you or pay for an additional Public Entertainment Licence from the council, the licensee would be prosecuted and face a possible £20,000 fine or 6 months in prison.

The meeting convinced me that the council officer's current broad interpretation of performer, is one that licensing officers prefer and which they advise this Council to hold to because they fear that a more just and sensible definition would be more difficult for them to enforce.

Roger Gall

[Note - The following part of Lord Bassam's quote was supplied in my letter but not published - *depending on the circumstances*].