More from UK Music now, and the boss of the cross-industry trade body, Feargal Sharkey, has demanded that police reveal what they do with the information about musicians that is submitted on the 696 licensing application form.
As previously reported, Sharkey last week hit out at the new bureaucracy involved in applying for live music licences that has been introduced since the 2003 Licensing Act became law. The nature of this bureaucracy varies around the country, but in London involves filling out the Metropolitan Police's 696 form, which demands the full names, performing names and contact details of every artist performing, and the genre of the music they perform. It's that information Sharkey is interested in.
According to Music Week, Sharkey has written to the boss of the Metropolitan Police (which is still Ian Blair, for the time being) asking him to clarify the "use and purpose" of the form, and to confirm what happens to the information provided.
Sharkey argues that the information requested by the 696 form is not a legislative requirement - ie it is not mentioned in the 2003 Act. He also says that government guidelines say police intervention on the live music front should be "light touch". The Met's form, he argues, is anything but.