The chap who has taken over Howells' title is Lord MacIntosh who handled business in the Lords before and also today. He will not be able to do it in the Commons but any damn fool could do that as one already has.

He stated that the amplified exemption was not required as the 'incidental live music' exemption they were so kindly leaving in for us, would deal with that.

Please circulate the following from Hamish Birchall.

At 1.35pm this afternoon Opposition Peers reinstated a small events entertainment licensing exemption for the performance of live music. The Division vote was 128 for, 113 against. This is a very encouraging victory. However, this doesn't guarantee that the exemption will be incorporated into the Licensing Act in its final form.

The Bill will return to the Commons next Tuesday, 24 June. If the Government remains determined to resist it may simply overturn the amendment again, and the Bill will 'ping-pong' back to the Lords. However, the Government may be persuaded to reach a compromise. That could depend to a great extent on how many Labour MPs make representations to the DCMS and the Government in support of a 'de minimis' exemption.

The amendment would allow the performance of live music without entertainment licensing, provided it finished by 11.30pm and no more than 200 people attend at any one time. The Government strongly resisted on health and safety and crime and disorder grounds. But Baroness Buscombe, leading for the Conservatives, set out in detail the existing legislative controls that apply irrespective of licensing, and Lib Dem Peers held their ground.

Anyone with a Labour MP - please write to them again. Identify your MP from either the Musicians' Union website www.musiciansunion.org.uk (click under Lobby your MP) or from www.faxyourmp.com, where you can also send a fax direct.

Here is a draft text:


Dear ........................ MP

Licensing Bill - live music - small events exemption

As a constituent and professional musician I ask that you make strong representations to Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), in support of the small events licensing exemption for the performance of live music reinstated by the House of Lords on Thursday 19 June 2003.

If the DCMS and the Government have concerns about any negative implications of the exemption I would ask that they seek to work constructively with the Opposition to improve it, rather than simply overturning the amendment.

The principle of the exemption is to encourage live performance in venues of all kinds, and to restore proportionality to the Bill. If any place can be fitted with big screens and a PA to provide broadcast entertainment, or a stage, lighting and PA for stand-up comedy, without licensing under this Bill, there is no justification in requiring the licensing of almost all public performance of live music. These apparently arbitrary exemptions are one reason why 12th Report of the Joint Committee of Human Rights, published on 13 June, has warned again that the Bill is potentially incompatible with the right to freedom of expression.

The Government has yet to take this fully into account, and in my view a small events exemption is the best way forward.

Yours sincerely