§ Mr. GrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions she has had about(a) liquor and (b) public entertainment licensing of village halls. [85158]
§ Dr. HowellsIn addition to the White Paper public consultation on the proposals now contained in the Licensing Bill, Ministers have had numerous discussions and entered into a great amount of correspondence with a variety of different organisations and individuals. As the new regime proposed in the licensing Bill will cover all premises where licensable activities take place, discussions have focused on how the system will work for all types of premises, and of course the impact on village halls has been considered.
§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will list(a) the organisations she contacted offering consultation and (b) those who responded, in respect of entertainment licence proposals in the Licensing Bill. [84617]
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§ Dr. HowellsWe sent the White Paper, that was published in April 2000, to 231 organisations in order to gain their responses in respect of our proposals. I am arranging for a list of these organisations to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. Any organisation or individual was, of course, free to respond to the White Paper, which was published and made freely available on Government websites.
We received 1,215 responses to the consultation of which 656 were from organisations. Copies of these responses were placed in the Libraries of both Houses.