Appendix 12
Letter to the Clerk of the Deregulation and Regulatory
Reform Committee from the Chief Executive of the Association of
Licensed Multiple Retailers (dated 12 September 2001)
Proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Special Occasions
Licensing) Order 2001
The Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR)
is in receipt of a copy of your letter dated 19th July
requesting comments and views on the above Regulatory Reform proposal,
which is intended to relax licensing hours on New Year's
Eve this year. The ALMR is the trade association representing
the interests of bar, pub and other licensed retailers. Currently
around 100 companies are in membership, ranging from independent
singleton operators to pub, bar and restaurant chains and tenanted
pub companies. Between them, our members own and/or operate 25,000
premises.
The ALMR fully supports the aims and objectives of
the proposed Regulatory Reform proposal, and believes that its
introduction will considerably simplify the procedures and reduce
the costs which currently pertain to applications for late night
entertainment and trading over the New Year period. An earlier
Deregulation Order permitting extended trading over the Millennium
period was a great success, easing pressure not only on licensees
but also on court and police time. The Association has consistently
argued for the need for a long-term solution to the question of
New Year's
Eve trading to be found. We do not believe that separate arrangements
organised on an annual basis are the best way forward and believe
that a comprehensive reform of the law confirming extended New
Year's
Eve opening for the foreseeable future —
provided that the necessary protection is maintained —
is the only way of providing true certainty.
We share the Committee's
concern that the late laying of this proposal has severely limited
its practical value. The earliest such a proposal could be confirmed
would be early December, and discussions amongst our members suggest
that many are now apply for Special Orders of Exemption to ensure
that they are able to plan their New Year's
Eve entertainments with some degree of certainty. However, we
do not believe that there is no merit in proceeding with the scrutiny
of the proposals, and indeed would strongly urge the Committee
to do so. The reasons for this are threefold:
—
Special orders of exemption are granted by the Magistrates
on a local basis and this will inevitably lead to discrepancies
between areas. While the Magistrates Association has recommended
that its members automatically approve extensions of up to 12
hours, and look favourably on those applying for longer, the Association
does not believe that this will translate into the full flexibility
and deregulation contained in the proposal. Our members have indicated
that whilst they will plan on the basis of the hours granted to
them by the Magistrates under the Special Order of Exemption,
they would nevertheless take advantage of any extension to this
provided by a late adoption of the Regulatory Reform Order. The
same situation applied to the Millennium period and many pubs
simply extended their planned opening hours in the light of the
Deregulation Order. Adoption of the Order would therefore not
be without practical business benefit to many small pubs and bars,
particularly those in rural or community settings.
—
The Government has clearly stated that this proposed Order
is designed as "trial
run"
for future deregulation of licensing hours over the New Year's
Eve period. The Millennium experience was clearly a positive one,
with few complaints or public order concerns, but it has been
decided that a further trial under normal trading conditions is
necessary before more comprehensive reform is introduced. As has
already been noted, the ALMR firmly believes that the present
process of deregulation of hours on an annual basis is unsatisfactory
and is not conducive to effective business planning. Many of our
members took advantage of the Deregulation Order for the Millennium
and had anticipated being able to continue with these arrangements
over the last New Year period. This was frustrated due to bad
legislative planning and there is a very real danger that this
will prove to be the case again this year. As has been noted above,
sufficient pubs would take advantage of extended hours, even at
the anticipated late stage of introduction, to make it a realistic
test of the arrangements. The ALMR would therefore be extremely
concerned if the industry was to miss out on demonstrating the
positive benefits of more comprehensive reform at the end of this
year.
—
The ALMR shares the Committee's
high hopes for the revised regulatory reform procedure and has
already been in discussions with the Small Business Minister and
the Ministerial team at DCMS to discuss ways in which it may be
used to lift regulatory burdens from pubs and bars. However, the
industry's
experience of the Deregulation procedure was not, on the whole,
a positive one, and it would considerably dampen its enthusiasm
to work with the Government and the Committee to effect meaningful
change if this proposal was derailed despite considerable support
from all sides.
The ALMR therefore strongly urges the Committee to
press ahead with its scrutiny of the draft proposals. We should
very much welcome the opportunity to present oral evidence to
the Committee on this order, or provide more detailed commercial
case studies explaining how it would be used by operators if adopted.
We have written in a similar vein to the Government, expressing
our disquiet and stressing the need to press ahead with approval
of the proposal subsequent to the Committee's
deliberations.
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