Penrose, whose brief also includes licensing, has said that if he goes down the route of deregulation - UK Music, the Musicians' Union and others are advocating an exception from the Licensing Act for venues to put on gigs for 100 people or more - then he will be required to alert his colleagues in at least two other Government departments.

The move comes as the Lord Clement-Jones Live Music Bill gets a date for its second reading in the ...