§ 5. Mr. Pageasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if be will introduce legislation to amend the Licensing (Consolidation) Act, 1910, so that it will no longer be necessary to attach three complete copies of the printed rules of a club to the annual return required to be submitted to the justices by Section 92 of that Act.
§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. David Renton)Section 143 of the Licensing Act, 1953, which re-enacts the provisions of Section 92 of the Act of 1910, does not contain such a requirement. I understand that some forms of return issued by 1328 publishers recommend, in accordance with a suggestion once made by the Home Office, that two spare copies of the club rules should be forwarded for the convenience of the clerk to the justices; but a club is under no obligation to comply with this recommendation.
§ Mr. PageIs my hon. and learned Friend aware that the forms received by secretaries of clubs require three copies of the rules to be sent to the clerk to the justices? Although this may seem a small matter, it is extraordinarily irritating to those who have to register clubs, such as the British Legion. What on earth can the clerk to the justices do with 140 copies of rules that have been registered since 1910?
§ Mr. RentonThe licensing justices merely require annual return forms, which are published for convenience by certain firms. These forms are not statutory. It is true that they suggest that copies should be sent in duplicate because it helps the clerk to the justices. That suggestion is made as the result of what the Home Office suggested in 1902, and in fifty-six years there has been no complaint of the copies having to be sent.