Draft Licensing Act 2003 (Permitted Temporary Activities) (Amendment) Order 2026
(1 day, 8 hours ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Jo White)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Licensing Act 2003 (Permitted Temporary Activities) (Amendment) Order 2026.
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Jardine. The purpose of this instrument, laid before the House on 10 September, is simple. It will increase the number of temporary event notices that may be given in respect of a single premises from 15 to 20 in each calendar year. It will also increase the maximum number of days on which temporary events may take place at those premises from 21 to 26. Subject to Parliament’s approval, the new limits will come into force on 1usb January 2027, when the annual entitlements are reset.
Temporary event notices, or TENs, are a means of authorising licensable activities on a temporary basis without the need to obtain or permanently vary a premises licence. Those activities may include the sale or supply of alcohol, regulated entertainment or the provision of late-night refreshments. TENs can also be used by premises that already hold a licence but wish temporarily to undertake an activity or operate at a time that is not covered by their existing licence. The system is used by a wide variety of businesses, individuals and community organisations. A TEN might allow a pub or restaurant to hold an additional event, but equally it could support an event at a school, a community centre, a church hall, a wedding venue, a market or a small festival.
Under the changes before the Committee, responsible organisers will be given additional flexibility to respond to local demand and hold more well-run events. The order will support local economic activity, provide new opportunities for communities to come together and remove an unnecessary constraint on business. I am sure that all of us here recognise the contribution made by the hospitality sector, not only to our economy but to our high streets and communities. I do not suggest that this targeted measure will address every pressure facing the sector. However, it is a sensible and proportionate step that will give businesses greater flexibility without requiring a fundamental change to the licensing system.
The limits proposed in this instrument are not untested. Higher thresholds of 20 TENs and 26 days applied temporarily during 2022 and 2023 as part of the response to the economic effects of the covid-19 pandemic. Information available to the Home Office did not identify a significant increase in adverse impacts linked to those higher limits.
The Government have carefully considered the differing views expressed in a call for evidence on licensing reform. Hospitality businesses and trade bodies generally supported greater flexibility. Some local authorities, public health organisations, residents and community groups raised concerns about public nuisance, crime and disorder, public health and additional pressure on local services. We have taken those concerns most seriously. The instrument makes a modest adjustment to the annual limits while keeping the safeguards at the heart of the Licensing Act 2003 firmly in place.
The four licensing objectives—the prevention of crime and disorder; public safety; the prevention of public nuisance; and the protection of children from harm—will continue to apply. The police and environmental health authorities will continue to receive temporary event notices, and they may object where they consider that a proposed event would undermine one or more of those objectives. Where objections cannot be resolved, the licensing authority may, where appropriate, impose conditions on a TEN or issue a counter-notice preventing the event from proceeding. Licensing authorities will still be required to issue a counter-notice where the statutory limits are exceeded.
We should be clear about the limited nature of this change. The instrument does not alter the limits that apply to an individual premises user, whether or not that person holds a personal licence, nor does it change how individual notices or event days are counted. It simply increases the annual premises-level limits by five notices and five days. The instrument applies in England and Wales and makes the necessary consequential amendments to the prescribed TEN forms. The statutory guidance issued under section 182 of the Licensing Act will also be updated to reflect the new limits when the order comes into force. In designing those changes, we have been acutely aware of the need to balance support for businesses with protection of residents and local communities. The order strikes that balance. I commend it to the Committee.
Matt Vickers (Stockton West) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. On Armistice Day, I begin by remembering all those who served. Many of the community events that this order helps, in Royal British Legion branches, social clubs and village halls, are where our communities come together to remember.
At the outset, I declare an interest as a regular patron of Stockton West’s pubs. We have some of the best—in fact the best—pubs in the country, and they will welcome anything that lets them put on another event and get more customers through the door. So let me be clear: the Opposition support this order. Giving licensed venues, and particularly our pubs, greater flexibility is exactly what the last Conservative Government did when we raised the limits in 2022 and 2023 to help the sector recover from the pandemic. It worked then, and I am glad the Government have recognised that. It is no surprise that a significant majority of hospitality and leisure venues backed the increase in the call for evidence. For a publican planning a beer festival, a charity quiz night or a Christmas market, five more notices and five more days a year really matter.
Of course, there must be safeguards. As shadow Policing Minister, I know how important it is that the police and environmental health authorities can scrutinise notices and step in where an event risks crime, antisocial behaviour or serious nuisance for neighbours, but that has to be balanced against the evidence. When these higher limits applied before, there was no significant increase in adverse impacts and, overall, police forces did not oppose this change in the call for evidence. It is right that we back it, but the order cannot be seen in isolation from what our pubs and hospitality businesses have been through.
In Stockton West our pubs are part of the fabric of the community, from a night out in Yarm to the locals served in Eaglescliffe, Ingleby Barwick, Stockton, Thornaby and our villages. Like a number of hon. Members, I host my own pub awards, and places like the Myton House Farm in Ingleby Barwick show what a pub can mean to a community. They provide local jobs—often a young person’s very first job—support local charities and other local businesses, and bring people together. When a pub struggles, the impact goes well beyond the landlord, and pubs are struggling.
Every week, I hear from businesses that are being absolutely battered. They are paying more to employ people after the rise in employer national insurance. They are paying the price for more red tape introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025. They are paying more in business rates because the Government cut the relief for retail, hospitality and leisure. In 2023, I led a campaign backed by more than 40 colleagues. It called on the then Chancellor to extend the 75% relief. He did, and this Government cut it.
I know the Minister may point to last month’s Budget. I welcome the 20% cut to pubs’ business rates, but that goes nowhere near far enough to undo the damage already done. The Government’s own figures suggest that only around 10% of pubs would pay no business rates, and what the Chancellor gave with one hand he took back with the other by adding 2p to the price of every pint.
The industry’s own trade body, UKHospitality, says that the sector has lost more than 100,000 jobs in the past two years. That is almost half of all the jobs lost across the entire economy. Those are not just statistics; they are bar staff, chefs and young people losing their first rung on the employment ladder, in a sector that provides almost a third of first-time jobs for 16 to 24-year-olds. The economic note for the order, although based on older data, estimates that each additional temporary event notice generates an average profit of £119, with a range of £105 to £143. That is welcome when margins are this tight, but it does not take an experienced publican to recognise that a few extra events will not pay the additional bills landing on the doormat.
I have two brief questions for the Minister. First, will she publish the evidence from 2022 and 2023 showing that the higher limits did not lead to more crime or nuisance, so that residents and licensing authorities can have confidence in the change? Secondly, will she confirm that the police and environmental health authorities keep every one of their existing powers to make reasonable objections? We support the increased flexibility, but our pubs need more support than five extra events a year. I hope the Minister will keep looking for practical ways in which licensing policy can help pubs, and that she will make the case across Government for tackling the costs that put their futures at risk.
Max Wilkinson (Cheltenham) (LD)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Jardine. It is right that the Government are making this change to support our hospitality sector. We hope that it will prevent the absurdity that happened this summer, when the England team played late at night and the Government were required to make a one-off order to allow venues to stay open late. Will the Minister confirm that the order will give some extra flexibility, so that we do not have a repeat of the scenario we experienced before the Mexico game in the summer?
There are, however, general concerns about the application of TENs. They are annually used in my constituency to circumvent licensing laws to allow pop-up sexual entertainment venues. In particular, that happens during Cheltenham race week. If councillors on the local authority reject sexual entertainment venue applications, it is well known that the venues will open anyway, perhaps even in the same place, under TENs exemptions. Those venues then operate to a lower standard of regulation and represent a risk to women—the performers.
The TENs regulations, as they stand, undermine SEV licensing regulations, but Ministers in this Government and the previous one have repeatedly refused to engage. Will the Minister look at how she can amend legislation to close that loophole and to address the gaping hole in licensing regulations, particularly given the ongoing debate about the need to tackle threats and violence against women and girls in general? Will she and her officials meet me to discuss the matter at the very least, to prove that the Government are as good as their word on VAWG?
Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)
I will speak briefly in support of the order, particularly with regard to rural communities like mine in north Cumbria, where it is not that a pub may have closed but that a pub never existed in the first place, so the centre of the community is the village hall. I put on the record my thanks to the village hall committees of Nicholforest, Roadhead and Stapleton, which each run an amazing number of community events throughout the year. This order will be a big boost for them.
I also give credit to the Crossings and the Black Lion, which are more than pubs for the two villages they serve. When there are storms and power cuts, which are sadly too frequent, they are hubs for the community. I very much welcome the order, which is crucial to sparsely populated areas such as north Cumbria. Gathering at a function at the village hall or local pub gives people the opportunity to meet their neighbours.
Jo White
I am grateful for the contributions and comments from hon. Members. I agree with the hon. Member for Stockton West that this order will give our armed services personnel and those who want to participate in Remembrance events greater opportunities to meet together.
Hospitality businesses play an important role in strengthening communities and creating places where people can come together. That is why the Government have delivered permanently lower business rates for more than 750,000 eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties. We have also provided targeted support for pubs, clubs and live music venues, and are reviewing pub and hotel valuations to ensure that the system is fairer, more transparent and more predictable. We have also invested £10 million through the new hospitality grant scheme to support growth, boost resilience, create jobs and strengthen local economies.
Hospitality businesses continue to face significant cost pressures, and the Government want to provide practical measures that support growth, high streets and local communities. The increase in the number and availability of TENs is a low-burden change that provides additional flexibility without requiring businesses to go through the process of obtaining a full premises licence variation. On the issue raised by the hon. Member for Cheltenham, strip clubs are regulated under different legislation—the Local Government Act 2003—but I will take his point back to the Home Office and ensure that the Policing Minister follows up with him.
I once again thank hon. Members for their thoughtful contributions to this debate. As I have set out, this sensible and proportionate measure will support our hospitality sector while maintaining the important checks and balances that underpin the licensing regime. With that, I commend the order to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.