Ministers Seek Views At Music Summit
Ministers will today invite key players from the music world to share their views on how the Licensing Bill should be delivered to ensure live music can flourish in the future.
As the next stage in an ongoing consultation, the Licensing Bill will top the agenda in a meeting with key music figures in London today. Those present will represent writers, managers, record labels, music teachers, students and grass root musicians.
It follows an invitation from Licensing Minister Kim Howells to the music world to inform the development of guidance for licensing authorities – which they will have to have regard to in carrying out their functions.
Culture Minister Kim Howells said:
"We want live music to flourish in this country. That's our endgame. The Bill has been drawn up to deliver it.
"We must make sure the new licensing system is delivered with common sense on the ground. The music world has a key role to play in making this happen. This is why I want to hear their views today and in the coming weeks.
"We have produced a flexible Bill, which I believe strikes the right balance between freedoms and protections. I am confident we can go on from here to produce supporting guidance that realises this aim."
Feedback from today's meeting will be made available to a working group of key players from the music world, local authorities and the industry, who will be letting the DCMS have their views on what we should include in the guidance. The group aims to report back in April.
The group was announced last week, as part of a package of measures to allay fears about the Licensing Bill's impact on live music. This included amending the Bill to make it clear that entertainers who perform, and that is all they do, at unlicensed venues will not be committing an offence.
The guidance will help to allay concerns expressed by Musicians that licensees will be discouraged from putting on entertainment through a fear that licensing authorities will impose unnecessary and costly conditions to their licences, such as requesting expensive adjustments to venues.
Today's discussion on the Licensing Bill will take place as part of the Music Industry Forum - chaired by Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell. The Forum is an annual event bringing together Ministers and key players from the Music Industry to discuss a wide range of issues such as music piracy and creative growth.
Notes to Editors
- The first Music Industry Forum, chaired by Chris Smith was held in early 1998 with a remit to consider key issues for the music industry where the Government might be able to give its assistance, and to give advice to Government on these matters. It has met regularly since then. It is not a formal decision making body, has no fixed membership – individuals are invited on a meeting by meeting basis according to their expertise relating to the issues under discussion.
- The publication of the first draft of the statutory guidance to licensing authorities was announced in press release 19/03 published on February 13th 2003. The Government will use the guidance to draw very clear distinctions about what might and might not constitute appropriate conditions to apply to licences that authorise live music. Licensing authorities will be required to have regard to the guidance. This means that, although they are able to depart from the guidance, for example to take account of particular circumstances, they cannot disregard it and they will have to demonstrate good reasons for departing from it.
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