Red Tape cut for live music venues

From 1 October 2012, thousands of small businesses and venues that host live music events will be freed from the burdens of unnecessary red tape.

 

The reforms are part of a wider strategy to cut red tape, including the Red Tape Challenge, which invited the public, business and the voluntary sector to give their views on which regulations should stay, be improved, or be scrapped altogether.

The Government is making it easier for pubs and clubs to stage live music, by removing regulatory burdens on venues. Specific licenses will no longer be needed for live unamplified music performed in any location, and live amplified music in on-licensed premises and workplaces for audiences of up to 200 people, between 8am and 11pm.

Dozens of other regulations will be removed or simplified today, giving businesses more freedom to grow. These include:

• Removing legislation that dictates the precise location and design of no smoking signs in workplaces
• Greater freedom for firms to determine the most appropriate set of accounting rules for them
• Giving over 100,000 more small businesses the flexibility to decide whether or not their company accounts should be audited, saving firms up to £390m per year
• Targeted new measures to restrict cowboy clampers saving motorists about £55 million each year in clamping charges

Business Minister Michael Fallon said:

“From today businesses are freed from the red tape that holds them back. We are ending over-the-top bureaucracy that stifles community groups and pubs wanting to put on small events; scrapping pointless rules about no smoking signs, and saving businesses millions per year through more proportionate accounting rules. But this is just the start – we’ve set ourselves the challenging target of scrapping or reducing a total of 3,000 regulations. I’m determined to slim down regulation and make Britain an easier place to start and run a business.”