FOI - Noise complaints against pubs and bars [Apr 2023]

Your request

1. The number of noise complaints made against pubs, bars and late-night venues in 2022 to councils versus the last comparable pre-pandemic trading period.
2. The breakdown of what percent of complaints were made against pubs, versus bars, versus late-night venues.
3. A breakdown of the number of noise complaints made to each council in the country in the past year. 
4. How many of these complaints lead to consequences, for example, fines, taking away licenses, closures of pubs and how many did not?
5. How many music venues have shut each year in London over the past decade?

Our response

Questions 1 - 4

We can today confirm that the GLA does not hold the information you have requested. However, some of the information you are looking for about noise complaints is available on the Chartered Institute of Environment Health website.

Question 5 

The London Datastore holds the most up-to-date datasets on music venues.

The music venues (all) category includes grassroots music venues, clubs, pubs, musical 
theatre and bars. Our data collection for the music venues (all) category started in 2018, 
therefore we are unable to provide the number of music venues closures each year in 
London over the past decade. However, more detailed data is provided below on grassroots music venues and pubs that make up the music venues (all) category. 

Grassroots music venues 

Grassroots music venues were first mapped in 2016 showing 94 venues. The number 
remained stable in 2017 and 2018 and there was an increase to 100 venues in 2019. Prior 
to this, London had lost 35 per cent of its grassroots music venues between 2007 and 2015. 

Links to relevant resources: 

The 2019 data download is available through the London Datastore.

Pubs 

The 2018 pubs data note was produced using information from the Campaign for Real Ale 
(CAMRA) and the inter-departmental business register (IDBR). The research showed that 
London had lost 27 per cent of its pubs between 2001 and 2018. This amounted to 60 pub closures in 2015-16 (a 1.6 per cent fall) and 85 pubs closures in 2016-17 (a 2.4 per cent fall). 

The 2019 data capture provided by CAMRA showed 4,098 pubs in London.

Links to relevant resources: 

The 2019 data download is available through the London Datastore.

2018 London Pubs Annual Data Note.

A data update to the music venues category will be published on the London Datastore 
shortly. The update included cleaning, segmenting, and developing more detailed 
categories within the music data. This means that the 2018-2019 and 2022 datasets will 
not be directly comparable. However, all datasets will be available on the London 
Datastore. 

If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact us, quoting 
reference MGLA190423-5262.