The Live Music Forum
Bulletins
Friday 11th November 2005 - Government Found Guilty of Misleading Claims on Live Music
See below for a transcript of this morning's BBC R4 Today item about the 1.7
million gig claim for 'bars, clubs and restaurants' found to be misleading by
the Market Research Standards Board (MRSB).
A few caveats first, however:
The BBC mistakenly called the MRSB a 'government body' in the opening commentary.
The Market Research Society is in fact an independent professional body 'that
exists to set and enforce the ethical standards to be observed by research practitioners'.
See their website: http://www.mrs.org.uk/
MRSB only has power to discipline its members, who are individual market researchers,
not companies or corporations.
A MORI employee was disciplined essentially because MORI has joint responsibility
with DCMS for any press releases or publications including the live music survey
findings, and the 1.7 million gig claim as it was originally made should not
have been published without qualification.
The fact that DCMS later covertly altered the former licensing minister's
quote in the 25 August 2004 press release is not made clear in this piece.
The MRS confirmed to me yesterday that alteration of the minister's quote was
NOT included in their disciplinary action. How it came to be done is now the
subject of a further MRSB investigation, following another complaint from me,
and is likely to be the subject of Parliamentary questions.
In November 2004 and January 2005, DCMS ministers were questioned in Parliament
about the 1.7 million estimate relating to 'bars, clubs and restaurants'. No
apologies were offered, despite the fact that in a letter to me dated 10 December
2004 DCMS Licensing Implementation and Communications Manager Jason De Bono
wrote: 'I can confirm that the 1.7 million estimate was for the whole sample.
The reference to "bars, clubs and restaurants" made by Richard Caborn
was shorthand for this - there was of course no intention to mislead.'
I did bring other complaints about the validity of the survey, but the 1.7 million
live gig claim was top of my list. The MRSB has not recommended disciplinary
action in relation to my other complaints, but nor have they yet explained why
they were not upheld.
TRANSCRIPT OF BBC Today broadcast - Friday 11 November 2005 - 6.51-7.54am approx
DCMS 1.7 million live gig claim for bars, clubs and restaurants was misleading.
EDWARD STOURTON: The time now is 9 minutes to 7. The Market Research Standards
Board, the government body which is charged with running checks on the accuracy
of market research, has ruled that one of the government's own press releases
was misleading. The release dealt with the impact of the new Licensing Act on
live music in small venues, the subject of much grumbling among musicians. Nicola
Stanbridge reports:
[background jazz fade in]
NICOLA STANBRIDGE: For ten years this little restaurant called La Brocca in
Hampstead has had a reputation for live jazz music, acting as a springboard
for young musicians. Under the old Licensing Act, two musicians could play without
an entertainment licence. Under new rules the venue needs one. But the cost
is prohibitive, and La Brocca is closing its doors to musicians, one of many
examples this programme has heard of. Its owner is David Locke.
DAVID LOCKE: It's expensive to get a licence, and live music in bars and pubs
and restaurants is not profitable. It's a philanthropic thing really to put
jazz or folk music in a pub. You know, to have to go to a lot of cost to get
a music licence, you know, to do various modifications - all sorts of stuff
- just isn't viable and people won't do it because they can't afford to do it.
NICOLA STANBRIDGE: This is at odds with the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport which has always insisted the new Licensing Act is an easy box-ticking
way of getting a public entertainment licence, making it much easier to put
on music. [jazz fades out] Last August the minister responsible, Richard Caborn,
said there was a flourishing music scene: 'an estimated 1.7 million gigs were
staged in the last year alone in bars, clubs and restaurants whose main business
isn't putting on live music'. That was based on a MORI survey, but musicians
disputed the scene was flourishing, insisting it was vulnerable and likely to
worsen under the new Licensing Act. One musician, Hamish Birchall, decided to
add the sums up for himself.
HAMISH BIRCHALL: It looked as if 1.7 million was rather high for bars, clubs
and restaurants. I studied MORI survey's full report and it has a table showing
seven different venue categories. You get a figure of about 1.7, 1.8 million
for the WHOLE survey, not for a sub-set of three venue categories.
NICOLA STANBRIDGE: Hamish Birchall filed a complaint with the Market Research
Standards Board which agreed the statement was indeed misleading. The 1.7 million
related to the whole sample surveyed. The Board recommended a footnote be added
and disciplinary action. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport did change
the press release, broadening the 1.7 million number of gigs to include 'other
venues'. In a statement they said this was not a fundamental change, or a change
of meaning, and as such there was no need to issue a new press notice. They
said they didn't set out to misinterpret the research or mislead the public.
And MORI concurred, adding in a statement that the original press release did
include an executive summary of the MORI research, and a breakdown of all the
venues surveyed, and that other complaints by Mr Birchall were not upheld. The
Liberal Democrat Culture spokesman Don Foster says it raises questions about
future government statements.
DON FOSTER: The government having been rapped over the knuckles for misleading
the public in a press release should at the same time be acknowledging that
they made a mistake and should be apologising for doing it. We need to be much
more vigilant in the future about what this government is saying, whether it's
the Iraq dossier, burying bad news, or whether it's even about the state of
live music in this country.
SARAH MONTAGUE: Nicola Stanbridge reporting. The time now 6 minutes to 7.
ENDS
Hamish Birchall
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