DCMS forced to amend flawed' licensing fees
by John Harrington
The fiasco surrounding licensing fees took a new turn last week, when the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) was forced to issue an amendment to the "fees orders" after three mistakes were spotted in the original.
Meanwhile, a heated debate in the House of Lords saw DCMS spokesman Lord McIntosh forced to defend a fees structure that was criticised for letting nightclubs off the hook.
The first error in the fees orders concerns the "multiplier" for town-centre pubs a one-off payment for pubs in bands D or E that are "exclusively or primarily" for selling alcohol.
The original fees orders suggested that all venues in bands D or E would pay the extra charge, not just those focused on selling alcohol.
Secondly, the fees orders require pubs to pay additional variation costs. But the wording of the original fees orders suggested that all other venues either off-licences or other business would also have to pay the full variation fee (between £100 and £64,000).
Thirdly, the fees orders said larger venues of more than 5,000 capacity would have to pay variation costs in addition to conversion costs.
Last week's Lords debate on the fees saw Liberal Democrat peer Lord Clement-Jones quote an editorial in the Morning Advertiser to suggest that the Bar, Entertainment & Dance Associa-tion (BEDA) fooled the Govern-ment into allowing larger venues to get out of paying the multiplier charge.
The peer quoted the MA editorial that BEDA had "played a blinder" by getting out of paying for late-night disorder. He said: "In the view of these benches, the multiplier is flawed and should be re-thought."
McIntosh stressed that nightclubs should not have to pay the multiplier because they were better placed than pubs to deal with disorder.
He argued that all clubs, unlike pubs, have a capacity limit to prevent overcrowding, have security teams, and ensure that drinking is not their main purpose.
He said: "Large public houses are not subject to all those arrangements, and the evidence from the police and others is that costs relating to the enforcement of licensing law on those premises are likely to be higher than those relating to nightclubs."
l Coulson's column p16
