Provision of regulated entertainment

Regulated entertainment
If you are responsible for the function or location of regulated entertainment in front of an audience you will need either a Premises Licence, Club Premises Certificate or a Temporary Events Notice.

Types of regulated entertainment

• a performance of a play
• an exhibition of a film
• an indoor sporting event
• a boxing or wrestling entertainment
• a performance of live music
• any playing of recorded music
• a performance of dance and
• entertainment of a similar description to a performance of live music, any playing of recorded music or a performance of dance

To be licensable, one or more of these activities needs to:

• be provided for the purpose (at least partly) of entertaining an audience
• be held on premises that are available for the purpose of enabling that activity
• take place in the presence of a public audience or must be subject to a charge made with a view to profit (if the activity takes place in private)

Licensable
Authorisation for regulated entertainment is always required for entertainment activities that take place before 8am or after 11pm, unless exempted under any other provision of the 2003 act.

Not licensable
There are a number of exemptions that mean that a licence (or other authorisation) under the 2003 Act is not required.
The following activities are examples of entertainment which are not licensable:

• activities which involve participation as acts of worship in a religious context
• activities in places of public religious worship
• education – teaching students to perform music or to dance;
• the demonstration of a product – for example, a guitar – in a music shop
• the rehearsal of a play or performance of music for a private audience where no charge is made with a view to making a profit
• Morris dancing (or similar)
• incidental music – the performance of live music or the playing of recorded music if it is incidental to another activity
• incidental film – exhibiting film if it is incidental to some other activity or if it is solely to demonstrate a product, advertise any goods or services, or provide information, education or instruction. This includes any film exhibition at a museum or art gallery
• live television or radio broadcasts is live and simultaneous;

As a result of deregulatory changes that have amended the 2003 Act, no licence is required for the following activities:

• Plays, Dance o films with performances between 8am and 11pm on any day, if the audience does not exceed 500
• Indoor sporting events between 8am and 11pm on any day, if those present do not exceed 1000
• Boxing or wrestling entertainment for a contest, exhibition or display of Greco-Roman wrestling, or freestyle wrestling between 8am and 11pm on any day, if the audience does not exceed 1000

Private events
Events held in private are not licensable unless those attending are charged for the entertainment with a view to making a profit (including raising money for charity). For example, if a party is held for friends in a private dwelling with amplified live music, if a charge or contribution is made solely to cover the costs of the entertainment, the activity is not regulated entertainment.

Community premises: No licence is required for a performance of live music, the playing of recorded music or exhibition of a film on community premises, between 8am to 11pm on any day provided that:

• the community premises are not authorised by a premises licence or club premises certificate, to be used for the supply of alcohol for consumption on the premises
• the entertainment is in the presence of an audience of no more than 500 people
• the person organising or managing the entertainment has been given prior written consent of the management committee of the premises.
• the entertainment is not provided with a view to profit