LICENSING OF LAP-DANCING CLUBS

That this House welcomes the Government's proposal to reform licensing of lap-dancing clubs; notes that lap-dancing clubs currently fall into the same licensing category as restaurants and require only a licence to retail alcohol, despite also offering visual entertainment of a sexual nature; further notes that this has led to the number of such clubs doubling since 2004 whilst both limiting the say of local communities and preventing local authorities from considering the licensing of lap-dancing clubs in relation to gender equality; believes that the only viable solution to this problem is to allow local authorities to licence lap dancing clubs as sex encounter establishments; and calls for the Home Office to introduce legislation to this effect in the forthcoming Policing and Crime Reduction Bill.