In its response to John Whittingdale's report on the workings of the Licensing Act, which set out 26 recommendations in May, the Government has overruled several key suggestions including the introduction of a licence exemption for smaller venues and to scrap the controversial Form 696.

On the Committee's call to "exempt venues with a capacity of 200 persons or fewer" and also to re-introduce the "two-in-a-bar" rule, the DCMS response states that it "has not been able to reach agreement ...