§ Lord Moynihanasked Her Majesty's Government:
What steps they are taking to gauge the reaction from sports clubs to the proposed average increase in fees from £5 to £125 a year for alcohol licences, announced by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on 4 November. [HL4897]
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyThe fee levels to be set by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport under the terms of the Licensing Act 2003 have not been finalised. On 4 November, we announced the publication of a consultation on fee levels. We welcome the views of sports clubs as part of that public consultation, which ends on 23 December. All responses will be carefully considered before the fees are finalised. The proposal in that consultation is that fee levels to be paid by an individual club for the grant of a club premises certificate and the annual charge payable by a club holding such a certificate will depend on its non-domestic rateable value. The proposed fees for grant of a certificate range between £80 and £500 and annual charges between £40 and £225. These fee levels have been proposed to ensure that licensing authorities are able to recover fully their costs of 179WA administration, inspection and enforcement under the terms of the Act and no more. It would be wrong for these costs to fall on the taxpayer and the Government made it clear throughout the parliamentary stages of the Licensing Bill that it would not be appropriate for the consumption of alcohol to be subsidised.