The exemption is to what is licensable - "a performance of music or dancing".

It is this defintion that is the problem now and one that will remain unchanged, as there is nothing in the White Paper about changing it.

For there is no legal definition of what a 'performance' is or what is a 'performer'. So our Government just go ahead and bring in reform of something that has never been identfied.

For before music becomes an industry or a profession, it is and must be a means of free expression.

If or when the volume of that expression should present a real noise hazard to others, measures to address this should quite rightly be undertaken. But all music making should not be placed at risk because sometimes and in some places, a noise hazard MAY occur. Or because revenue can be obtained from placing a charge on commercial entertainment.

For the above is the current Civil Service thinking behind the new legislation they are now drafting.

We really need to set up a pressure group that is only interested in ensuring that all types of music making can be enabled everywhere, and never be criminalised.