Member

I completely agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) that licensing powers should be exercised in partnership with local authorities. I want to reassure her that local authorities will remain the key licensing authorities—licensing fees, for example, will remain within the remit of local authorities and will flow to them. We understand that there are issues with the setting of fee rates. This has been fed into the work of the licensing reform taskforce, and we will reflect on it. I reiterate that the specifics of pavement licensing are not currently within the scope of the Bill. Any further changes to pavement licensing will be made in the context of the national licensing taskforce, and will go through that process. To answer my hon. Friend’s final question, we are allowing for five-year pilots to review and revoke the provisions in this Bill; if the Government do not revoke these provisions, they will be retained. They will be tested in London, but the way we are approaching devolution is that there is a clear right to request, so in time, as we learn the lessons from London, other mayors will have that right to request.