§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she is taking to ensure that local authorities are able to set fees for public entertainment licences in order to reflect the proportionate risk of each establishment; and if she will make a statement. [134989]
§ Mr. CabornUnder current law, an applicant for a public entertainment licence is required to pay a reasonable fee to be determined by the appropriate authority. The existing legislation does not provide a fee structure, however, case law has established that local authorities are entitled to recover the cost of administering the licensing scheme, provided that allowance is made for exemptions or reductions for charities. They are not empowered to raise revenue through a licensing scheme.
The fees charged by local authorities for public entertainment licences are at their discretion but must be no higher than is necessary to allow the full recovery of their costs. On 10 of April 2000, because of concerns about the levels of fees being charged by some local 283W authorities, the Home Office issued a circular in conjunction with the Local Government Association asking local authorities to review their public entertainment licensing fee structures to ensure that they abide by the case law and are defensible and proportionate in light of the principles of fairness, transparency and consistency, and do no more than permit full recovery of costs.
Until the Licensing Act 2003 is fully implemented, we have no other mechanism for influencing fee levels.
Under The Licensing Act 2003, provides for the payment of licence fees in relation to applications, notifications, licences and certificates. The fees will be set centrally by the Secretary of State and are intended to be set on the basis of full cost recovery to allow local authorities to do no more than fairly recover their administration, inspection and enforcement costs associated with in respect of the new licensing regime.