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Police claim venue list is too expensive to collate
By Gordon Masson
THE METROPOLITAN POLICE has thrown out a Freedom Of Information request from Music Week regarding its controversial risk assessment documentation for live music events.
The police claim it would be too costly to find out how many venues are affected by its own Form 696 licensing conditions, which have come in for fierce criticism for the way in which they target events promoting specific genres of music such as R&B and bashment.
In light of the Met's insistence that London venues complete their Form 696 risk assessment questionnaire - which requests the personal details of artists performing - in order to receive approval for gigs, Music Week wrote asking for the name of premises in the capital that are being forced to comply with the regulations.
Our FOI request asked the Met to provide "the exact number of licensed venues within the 33 London Boroughs whose licence is dependent on the enforcement of the Metropolitan Police's risk assessment Form 696".
The request also asked for the names of those venues and whether the Met had prior conversations with the local authorities in regards to Form 696 becoming a mandatory condition of licences for premises that host live music events.