Licensing minister admits lessons must be learned
Government licensing minister James Purnell has admitted lessons must be learned from the introduction of the new act.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR), Purnell said: "We acknowledge the transition period was a period of a huge amount of work for local authorities and operators and we thank them for that work.
"We would say there are definitely lessons to be learned and there are things we could have done better."Until such a time as a date has been set my only advice to licensees is to pay their feesLicensing minister James Purnell
Purnell said that some guidance could have been issued earlier but added that after the doom and gloom of June and July last year when it was suggested that operators would go out of business due to a lack of information, it was quite an achievement to now have 98% of operators assimilated into the new system.
When asked by Jaclyn Bateman of George Bateman & Son about the possibility of a single renewal date of fees, Purnell said it was an idea the Government supported in principle.
However, he added: "Until such a time as a date has been set my only advice to licensees is to pay their fees - nothing should change until a formal decision has been taken."
Purnell was also questioned about the problem of over-zealous police and local authorities interpreting the rules on designated promises supervisors (DPS).
Peter Linacre of the Massive Pub Company said different authorities were adding their own interpretation and causing problems for decent operators.
But the minister insisted there would be no legislation on the DPS issue because the act itself was meant to be flexible.
He said: "Inconsistency is not going to go away. You can either have one set of very strict rules which are very clear but completely inflexible or you can go for a localised system - which is what we've gone for - but you will get inconsistencies because local authorities might do something different from each other"
He added: "A DPS going to pick up the children from school but leaving someone in charge might be acceptable, but a DPS going on holiday for 6 months and leaving no one in charge might not - but where is the line drawn? It's not something we can legislate."
Your CommentsRobert Feal-Martinez via email 26/04/2006"I have to smile everytime Mr Purnell opens his mouth, because he well and truely puts both his feet in it. The whole licensing process was a disaster and was caused by an overly complex Act which tried to encompass all manner of different Licensing. As a result the Ministers merry band were going around in circles, kneejerking to every situation and making it worse. They were warned by many of us. I for one was heavility involved in scrutinising the bill for nearly 2 years. I wrote to the DCMS and rarely got a reply. They were totally incapable of under the simple implications and meaning or words. The chaos continues, The Minister now saying that administration fees will have to be paid as they become due, rather than him making a simple decision which is available to him under the regulatory guidelines. Why does he not just say the paying of admin fees, (not renewal as is often bandied about) should be made 12 months on from the second appointed day. It would have course mean some paying sooner than others but there would still be a minimum of 12 months grace. Or is that too simple. We should bare in mind we could face similar problems re the smoking ban, if the regulations are delayed. The Lords are trying to get HMG to agree that the regulations be available prior to the Commencement order. HMG should acceed to this given the above Licensing chaos."
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