New plans to ease licensing red-tape
The Government plans to make it easier to secure temporary events notices for "low-risk" events as part of a new drive to simplify licensing.
Increasing the notice period for transferring licences after a hosts dies is also proposed.
Licensing Minister Gerry Sutcliffe told a Westminster debate on the Licensing Act: "We are in the early stages of drawing up a consultation on new simplification measures that are designed to reduce the administrative costs of the 2003 [Licensing] Act.
"I will mention just two of the proposed changes.
"First, on temporary event notices, we intend to consult on giving the police a discretionary power to allow late notifications for low-risk events.
"As the current minimum notice period for temporary event notices is 10 working days, that will help event organisers when, for example, they are forced to cancel an event at short notice and wish to reschedule for the following weekend.
"The police have indicated that, in principle, they would welcome such a discretion."
He also promised an "extension to the period during which the licence can be transferred after the death of the premises licence holder".
The current period is seven days and the Government earlier indicated it would move to 21. Sutcliffe agreed that "the time scale is too short and [we] are minded to replace it with a period of 28 days".
The minister pointed out that the notice period would also apply to cases of incapacity and insolvency.
A three-month consultation on the plans is to be released in November, said a spokesman for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
It will be separate from the upcoming consultation on live music, announced earlier this week, which proposed exemptions for venues with a capacity under 100.
