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Licensing Act 2003

The hon. Gentleman makes an extremely valid point. The Government have completely failed to understand the number of organisations and activities that are affected by the Act and will find matters involving licensing applications rather more difficult than they did in the past. I am not sure what I find most galling: the inability and incompetence of the Government, or the arrogance of Ministers about the matter. During Culture, Media and Sport questions yesterday, the Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde (James Purnell), told us that 33 per cent. of expected applications had been received. He said:"““Applications are starting to pick up, although there is still some way to go.””—[Official Report, 11 July 2005; Vol. 436, c. 555.]" With 25 days to go, for 190,000 premises—I am setting apart personal licences—an outstanding total of 133,000 applications are yet to be made. As a result of the Government’s deadline of 6 August, local authorities will have 18 working days in which they will be expected to receive and process applications, so they will have to deal with 7,400 a day. That shows the chaos out there at the moment. Why do not the Government just admit that they got things wrong and work with us to come up with a solution?