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Live Music Bill returns to Commons today
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 20 January 2012
The much previously reported Live Music Bill will go before the House Of Commons today (well, it will assuming the debate on another private member’s bill about daylight saving hours doesn’t overrun). It’s hoped that if scheduling and attendance numbers don’t go against it, the live music legislation could get through its report stage and third reading today, leaving only consideration of amendments to go before the proposals become law.
As previously reported, the Bill was introduced by Tim Clement Jones in the Lords, though is being sponsored by Don Foster MP in the Commons. It proposes a relaxation of the licensing rules around small scale live music events, making it easier for grass roots gigs to happen.
Many argue that new bureaucracy put in place by the 2003 Licensing Act has made staging such events so tricky, many pubs and small venues that previously staged live music have stopped doing so, to the detriment of the grass roots music community.
UK Music and the Musicians Union have been rallying MPs to show up and support the bill today, which does have cross-party support. As previously reported, although in theory backing Clement Jones’s bill, the coalition government is also working on its own revamp of live licensing rules, which may go further than this bit of legislation.
