The following from Hamish Birchall

Small gigs could be exempt from entertainment licensing within months if a 
government u-turn to be announced in Parliament today succeeds, according to 
an online Guardian report published early yesterday evening: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/21/police-law

The proposed 100-capacity venue exemption, preceded by a 12-week public 
consultation, is apparently to be announced by licensing minister Gerry 
Sutcliffe today during the Parliamentary debate on the government response 
to the Culture Committee's recommendations.

Significantly, the Guardian report claims that the minister will say that 
'... there are already sufficient measures in place to deal with noise and 
anti-social behaviour...' and that '... the government will prevent 
problematic venues from holding gigs if there are complaints made against 
them.'

Only last month, in correspondence with Labour MP Roger Berry, Sutcliffe 
justified the criminalisation of pub pianos unless licensed on the grounds 
that they were only 'theoretically innocuous' and that it had '... proved 
impossible to reach agreement [with local authorities] on an exemption which 
would promote live music but also protect local residents from noise and 
nuisance.'

The timing of the u-turn is clearly in response to the concerted lobbying of 
campaigners, UK Music, and today's demonstration outside Parliament 
organised by Equity and the Musicians Union.

But as John Whittingdale says in the Guardian report, although this is a 
step in the right direction, it does not go far enough.  He adds: 'We have 
already had consultations; this has been debated interminably. Our 
recommendation was for venues of up to 200 people to be exempted and in our 
view the evidence for the exemption is clear and should be acted upon 
immediately.'

In fact, under the Licensing Act (Sch. 1, para 4) the DCMS secretary of 
state has the power to modify the descriptions of entertainment 'by order'. 
This means that a small gigs exemption could be implemented within weeks if 
the government wished.

This policy u-turn appears to have been leaked yesterday by the government 
exclusively to the Guardian.  It was not made in a DCMS press release and 
would seem to be another example of government policy being announced to 
favoured newspaper before being announced in Parliament.

ENDS