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Sexual Entertainment Licence Exemptions

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Mr Howarth. I am grateful to the two other hon. Members who have joined me for this important debate.

I want to say first what the debate is not. This is not a debate that is led by prudish intolerance in relation to sexual entertainment. I have never been to a lap-dancing club, and my view is that real men do not buy women for entertainment, but, as a Liberal, I accept that if adults want to make such choices, that is up to them. The debate is about ensuring consistency in the application of the regulation of sexual entertainment on our high streets. It is about ensuring that performers in and patrons of sexual entertainment venues—lap-dancing clubs—are properly protected and that local communities are involved in the decision-making process about where and when such venues should operate.

The fundamental issue is simple. If a permanent lap-dancing club opens under the licensing regime adopted by the previous Government in the Licensing Act 2003 and the Policing and Crime Act 2009, the community is involved in making the decision and there would be significant safeguards in place for those who work in and visit the establishments. The 2009 Act, however, provides a specific exemption, stating that premises providing sexual entertainment on an infrequent basis—on no more than 11 occasions in a 12-month period—do not require a licence and, therefore, do not need to offer the same level of safeguards to performers and patrons. In Newquay, the exemption has led to lap-dancing nights being offered on that so-called occasional basis in direct competition to a licensed venue, but without any of the obligations that the licensed venue needs to meet.

For many years, I have had the pleasure of working closely with the people and businesses of Newquay to secure a future for the town that is sustainable and successful and to tackle some of the excesses of the night-time economy, which over recent years have blighted the town. To be clear, Newquay is a fantastic town. It sits within a stunning natural environment and has, over the decades, welcomed millions of visitors to enjoy its natural beauty and the entertainment that it has to offer. The town has been through many transformations, from a traditional fishing port and centre for the export of china clay, to being the surfing capital of Britain and a terrific, family-friendly visitor destination. Each time Newquay has reinvented itself, it has breathed new life into the streets and delivered new opportunities for the people who live, work and visit there.

Tourism is now one of the town’s primary industries and attracts a wide variety of visitors. The trade brings in much needed revenue for businesses in the town, which include hotels, bars, pubs, clubs, restaurants, surf

hire shops, bakeries, designer-clothing outlets and the usual range of excursion and entertainment providers to be found in seaside resorts such as Newquay. Collectively, those businesses employ huge numbers of local people and provide year-round income. Over the past decade or so, however, the town has seen a rise in the number of sexual entertainment venues—or, in the jargon, SEVs— and at one point, Newquay, with a resident population of a little more than 20,000, had five lap-dancing licences in operation. The proliferation of lap-dancing venues within the town centre has been a major concern of local people for a number of years. Clearly, the venues were there to cater for the fivefold increase in population that occurs during the summer months. They have, however, attracted significant antisocial behaviour, as well as more serious crime and disorder.

The previous Government’s 2009 Policing and Crime Act helped to put the community back in control. The town council, Cornwall council, the Devon and Cornwall police, the fire brigade, determined local residents and I have worked effectively together to use the powers under that Act to reduce the number of venues to only one licensed SEV, and to ensure that performers in and patrons of such venues are protected. That has made a huge difference to the atmosphere in the town centre. Five years ago, many people told me that they felt scared to go into the town centre in the evening; families rightly complained about the ubiquity of sexualised images in the main street and on the roads leading to the town’s beaches. Working together, we representatives of the community have been able to address such concerns with great success.

Lap-dancing clubs are regulated by the local authority—in my case, Cornwall council—and they are subject to stringent requirements that protect patrons and performers, while allowing residents and community representatives a voice in the location of the venues. Cornwall council has adopted powers under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982, as amended by the 2009 Act, in order to regulate sex shops, sex cinemas and sexual entertainment venues. The amended legislation delivers more power to local residents, giving them a much greater say in where SEV licences can be issued. It allows the local community to object to great effect when an application is made, based on whether the location is appropriate. The 2009 Act, however, also allows premises to hold the exact type of sexual entertainment that normally requires an SEV licence without a licence and without safeguards, if it is held less frequently than once a month. My understanding is that the exemption was designed to allow for one-off entertainment events, such as the attendance of a strippergram at a birthday party. Such provision was made with the best intentions, but there is a real risk that it is too broad and open to abuse.

One example concerns a site within Newquay, for which the owner had applied for a licence to become a permanent lap-dancing venue. During the application process, a considerable number of objections from local residents and businesses were received, and Cornwall council refused the licence. The venue in question, however, has now begun to operate sexual entertainment events under the exemption in the Act. This involves not the occasional strippergram but the operation of a full SEV during a whole 24-hour window once a month, with full nudity and none of the protections and safeguards that

performers and patrons should rightly be able to expect. It cannot be right that, when a venue has been refused a lap-dancing licence by the local authority, following objections from local people and businesses, it can then flout the will of the community and its representatives and go ahead in offering sexual entertainment without any of the protections mentioned.

We are debating the matter today because it raises serious questions about how fair the exemption is for those businesses that comply with the full licensing requirements for SEVs. Such venues comply with a large number of conditions that regulate their business, which I will come to shortly, but the cost is substantial—not only the cost of complying with the regulations imposed by the licensing authority, but the cost of the application itself. What must an SEV licence holder think when a nearby property, which has failed in getting a licence, still proceeds to stage sexual entertainment in direct competition and without the relevant safeguards that the licence holder must fund?

The business environment in Newquay, as in many of our towns and cities, is a competitive one, with significant numbers chasing a limited market, so, logically, were an SEV to be surrounded by a number of highly competitive premises that have one owner, it might well be challenged by more than one of those infrequent, occasional events each month. In such a case, those who have sought to comply with the law would see little point in going through the licensing regime, and perhaps switch to less regular and unregulated sexual entertainment events. I do not wish to be alarmist, but it is not unreasonable to suggest that a town such as Newquay, which saw a surge in lap-dancing venues, but tackled the issue head-on and imposed significant restrictions, could again see a large rise in unregulated sexual entertainment events, all happening in spite of the wishes of the community, Parliament or the local council. That is wrong.

The hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) knows that the regulations covering SEVs are not light touch. They rightly impose stringent conditions for the protection of all those involved in sexual entertainment. Those conditions are stringent because there is so much at risk in sexual entertainment. It is of great concern to me that expansion of unregulated sexual entertainment could put vulnerable people at risk. SEV licences ensure that the impact on the surrounding area is limited.

Some people will always object to SEV licences being issued, regardless of where they are and what measures are put in place to protect the surrounding community, but the licensing regime introduced by the previous Government allows local authorities to introduce significant protection, and the use of occasional or infrequent exemptions within the 2009 Act undermine the previous Government’s intention. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will confirm the present Government’s intention to ensure that venues are properly regulated and managed, and that performers and patrons are properly protected. For example, an SEV licence will explicitly prohibit the soliciting of custom in the street and the general locality including, in Newquay’s case, the whole town. That anti-touting rule ensures that SEVs can operate within communities with minimal impact on other businesses, passing trade and house prices.

That is particularly important in places such as Newquay that have strived in recent years to become more family-friendly resorts. Local businesses and residents have worked successfully and hard on that. My hon. Friend will be aware of initiatives such as Newquay Safe, which has brought together all stakeholders in the town to tackle anti-social behaviour and to reduce the cost of policing Newquay at the same time as reducing the amount of crime that is reported and recorded there. We have had significant success.

SEV licences require the interior of lap-dancing venues to be hidden from the street so that sexual entertainment events inside can be seen only by patrons and not by passers-by. If that requirement was not in place in places such as Newquay, the entertainment could be seen by anyone, from children on the way to the beach to pensioners on their way to local tea rooms. SEV licences place restrictions on advertising, and it is easy to understand why the regular holding of sexual entertainment events in unlicensed premises within the exemption might lead to images or advertisements that could damage an area’s reputation and put sexualised images in front of part of the population that simply does not want to see them.

Perhaps the most important provision in SEV licences is safeguards for the welfare of performers and patrons, which are exactly what the exemption does not provide. I think we all accept that lap dancing is an unusual and intimate environment, and the availability of alcohol at venues means that there is a significant danger that performers and patrons may find themselves in difficult situations. SEV licences include incredibly strict provisions to place the entertainer in the safest environment possible in the circumstances. That is achieved predominantly through a strict 3-foot rule that performers must remain at least 3 feet from patrons. That is an essential protection that reduces the risk of harassment or abuse of sexual entertainers and reduces the risk for patrons. Should even limited contact be allowed or suggested, the patron is at risk of allegations of a criminal act. With patrons and performers prohibited from touching each other by maintaining the 3-foot rule, there is a clear dividing line that affords safeguards to both parties.

All aspects of sexual entertainment must take place in open, supervised areas or in private in the presence of designated staff and under the umbrella of closed circuit television. SEV licences also require all restrictions to be enforced by designated supervisors or floor-walkers who must be fully trained and in such number to guarantee the safety of those inside the venue. If we are to have lap dancing in our towns and cities, the safeguards are vital to ensure that the experience is entertainment, not exploitation.

Venues operating within the exemptions of the 2009 Act need not adhere to those conditions. My local police superintendent, John Green, said:

“What has caused me concern is, as a consequence of the lack of regulation, the risk of harm and vulnerability issues for those girls at work at such an event.”

Superintendent Green went on to say of the lap-dancing nights that were held in Newquay under the exemption in the 2009 Act:

“Whilst the girls felt able to ‘look after themselves’, the general conduct, if held under the auspices of a SEV, would have breached almost all the conditions.”

Those real concerns from the local police sit alongside the real concerns from town councillors and Cornwall councillors who have worked to ensure that if we have the industry in our towns and cities, it must be as safe and as properly managed as we can achieve. Sadly, it is conceivable that a sexual entertainer working in an unfamiliar venue that does not afford its patrons and performers the protection of having gone through the licensed SEV process could be subject to a serious sexual assault, and possibly even worse. We should not allow legislation that is easy to change to put any individual in harm’s way in that respect.

What can be done? My hon. Friend the Minister will be pleased to hear that much can be done. The exemption was made in good faith so its removal may seem to be excessive. However, it is entirely conceivable that occasional sexual entertainment events could simply be subject to the same stringent requirements of the sexual entertainment licence process. That would require minimal legislative effort because the existing law allows the relevant national authority to order, amend or repeal the exemption clause without new primary legislation. That is a key point. The Government could deliver that with minimal effort. My hon. Friend need not remove the infrequency clause altogether. He could simply ensure that when it is used it meets the standards of the nearest SEV licence that has been issued by the relevant local authority.

An alternative that Cornwall council’s licensing department has suggested is to look at a mechanism similar to temporary event notices that are in existence under the Licensing Act 2003. That would give the local authority and the police an opportunity to consider and to object when applications were made for venues for one-off or infrequent sexual entertainment. Such a regime could also require premises to meet certain criteria providing adequate protection for performers and patrons. Those who wanted to stage sexual entertainment at occasional venues would have to meet the requirements placed on more permanent venues, ensuring safeguards against sexual assault or false allegations being made. Crucially in that scenario, local authorities could comment on and even refuse an application if they thought it appropriate to do so, or to add further restrictions. That could restore the vital input of local residents when deciding when, where and in what way such events take place in their communities.

The problem is not just in Newquay. In major cities throughout the country the sexual entertainment industry is exploiting this loophole in the legislation and is moving underground. We want to avoid that at all costs. The Government have the opportunity to act early. The Minister could make a significant difference, and the problem could be sorted out long before whole towns are teeming with competing, unlicensed sexual events, before the views of whole communities on whether, where and how such establishments exist are sidelined, and before anyone is put in harm’s way. My request to my hon. Friend is that he undertakes to look at the matter urgently. A small step from the Government could make a significant difference.

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