Moving away from noise.

No events are lost as a result of a complaint and a complaint is not necessary anyway. For a complaint (or an advertisement) only alerts the local authority a possible unlicensed public entertainment. And a complaint real or imagined, gives them a convienient someone else to blame, for forcing them to act.

The officers will know if a PEL is present or not, but a visit to the premises has to take place to establish if the activity is even licensable in the first place or indeed if it is exempt from the requirement.

It is not really necessary or usual to record, reveal or report back on a complaint about unlicensed entertainment. All that is required, or as some officers claim as their statutory duty, is to investigate to see if a licence is required.

On investigation, if the officers think, for example that pub customers providing their own unpaid music, is not a licensable activity, they have satisfied their statutory duty, and they can then go away and allow it to continue.

However, it does not ever happen like that.