The UK Licensing Act 2003 does present a threat to the circus and in particular to the circus and live music.

This from one of the latest Common's 'debates' on the subject.

There has been a lot of debate, and there are various issues that we could all raise. The hon. Gentleman talked about golf clubs. I shall cite the example of circuses, since it is has not been mentioned before. For your delectation, Mr. Olner, and to show how confused these matters are, I shall quote a small interchange that occurred in another place. My noble Friend the Lord Redesdale, asked the Minister, Lord McIntosh of Haringey:

''would circuses actually need a licence if they did not perform any live music? If they avoided live music, the circus could take place quite happily without regulation. Is that not a bizarre aspect of the Act?''

He received an inordinately helpful reply from the Minister, who said:

''I wish I could answer that simply, but I cannot. Music—incidental, live or whatever—is one of the issues, but there are also questions about whether the activities fall into the category of sports events—for example, those of trapeze artists. It sounds daft to the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale, and it sounds daft to me.''—[Official Report, House of Lords, 16 March 2004; Vol. 659, c. 126.] That was said by the Minister in another place with responsibility for the very matters that we are discussing today.