Draft Licensing Act 2003 (Permitted Temporary Activities) (Amendment) Order 2026

Max Wilkinson Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 General Committees

[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?