To note any declarations of interest made by Members, including those restricting Members from voting on the questions detailed in Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992.  See attached note from the Monitoring Officer.

Councillor Shiria Khatun and Councillor Rajib Ahmed declared a person interest on item 3.1, Application for a renewal of a Sexual Entertainment Venue for the Nags Head, 17-19 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1DU on the basis that they had worked with Mr Andy Bamber, Compliance Consultant, in his previous capacity as an ex-employee of the Council.

To note the rules of procedure relating to determinations of licenses for sexual entertainment venues.

The rules of procedure were noted.

The Chair exercised his power to exclude the press and public from the meeting. 

It was agreed that;

“Pursuant to Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960, and the Local Government Act 1972 the members decided that exceptionally a Licensing Committee hearing on Tuesday October 17th at 10 o’clock should be closed to the public because it was likely that exempt information would be disclosed in the course of a full hearing to determine the application for a renewal of a sexual entertainment venue licence. The exempt information related to action taken or to be taken in connection with the investigation or prosecution of a serious sexual assault at the licensed premises on May 4th 2017, and that there was also a risk that information would have been disclosed which identified the victim or witnesses which may have prejudiced the investigation or prosecution of the offence.

At the request of the Chair, Mr Mohshin Ali, Licensing Officer, introduced the report which detailed the application for a renewal of the Sexual Entertainment Venue licence for The Nags Head, 17- 19 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1DU. It was noted that the licence consists of the basic licence, plus additional conditions relevant to the premises only. In addition, the Tower Hamlets standard SEV conditions also apply and form part of the licence. It was noted that the Licensing Authority had objected to the application and this had been supported by the Police.

At the request of the Chair, Mr Philip Kolvin QC, acting on behalf of the Applicants, gave apologies on behalf of Mr Adrian Studd, Licensing Consultant, and Mr Saab Binning, Manager, and asked that there evidence is accepted as hearsay.

Mr Kolvin explained that the premises had been run by the Singh family for the past 30 years, and that it was their third year for applying for a SEV licence, it was noted that there had been no objections from local residents, local businesses or objections based on the environment or character of the area. Mr Kolvin explained that he would address the two issues that had been referred to in the objection, the first one was of the reported assault on 4^th May 2017 and the second one was the conduct of dancers on 11^th May 2017.

Mr Kolvin explained that there had been a rigorous process and effort to ensure compliance measures were in place to improve procedures. It was noted that as a result of these incidents a number of compliance visits had been conducted and all had shown that the venue was fully compliant.

Mr Kolvin stated that since the adjournment at the previous meeting on 2^nd October 2017, Mr Singh now accepted that touching had occurred on 11^th May 2017 this was detailed on page 6 of the Supplemental Agenda 2. Mr Singh unreservedly expressed his apologies for this incident and wanted to highlight that this was not an example of how the venue was run. It was noted that measures  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.1