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Home / Business / Licensing / Sexual Entertainment Venues

Sexual Entertainment Venues

Sex Establishments are required to be licensed under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982. A sex establishment can either be a Sex Shop or a Sex Cinema. A sex shop is a premises used for business which consists to a significant degree of selling sex articles.

A sex cinema is any premises used to a significant degree for showing of films which are concerned primarily with, or relate to, or are intended to stimulate sexual activity.

The law defines the way in which an application is made, which include advertising notice of the application in the local press and displaying a notice outside the premises for a specific time period to give passers by the opportunity to comment by a statutory closing date.

When considering an application for a sex establishment licence the Council may only use the following criteria:

the suitability of the Applicant
whether the person applying is a "front" person for someone else
the location and situation of the premises in relation to other premises in the area
whether the number of sex establishments in that locality is equal to, or exceeds the number which the Council considers appropriate for the area

Your Right of Appeal

any person aggrieved by a refusal to be granted a licence or by any condition to which a licence is subject may appeal to the Magistrates' Court.
an appeal against a decision made at the Magistrates Court may be appealed at the Crown Court but the decision of the Crown Court is final.

Offences and Penalties

anybody who operates a sex establishment without a licence or fails to comply with licence condition or admits persons under the age of 18 is committing an offence.
penalties upon conviction can range from £1,000 to £20,000.

Further Information

Copies of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1963 can be purchased from Her Majesty's Stationery Office. A copy of the legislation can be viewed at the Council Offices where you can also obtain an application form and a copy of our standard conditions.

Sexual Entertainment Venues

A sexual entertainment venue is defined in Paragraph 2A of Schedule 3 (as inserted by section 27 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009) as ‘any premises at which relevant entertainment is provided before a live audience for the financial gain of the organiser or the entertainer’. ‘Relevant entertainment’ is defined as ‘any live performance or live display of nudity which is of such a nature that, ignoring financial gain, it must reasonably be assumed to be provided solely or principally for the purpose of sexually stimulating any member of an audience (whether by verbal or other means)’. An audience can consist of just one person, e.g. in a private booth.

The category ‘sexual entertainment venues’ includes the following forms of entertainment as they are commonly understood:

Lap dancing;
Pole dancing;
Table dancing;
Strip shows
Peep shows;
Live sex shows;

This entertainment is defined as ‘relevant entertainment’.The attached notice briefly explains the process that has been adopted. The advertisement did appear in the Bournemouth Echo on Friday 23rd July 2010 and again on Saturday 31st July 2010.