Police defend club check form

Giggs says his tour this year was cancelled after he filled out the form

The head of the specialist unit that polices club nights and other live events in London is denying claims that his team is putting pressure on venues to keep grime and hip hop artists out of their line-ups.

It's after rapper Giggs told BBC Radio 1xtra that venue owners are being warned if they work with certain artists then the police will make sure their licences will not be renewed with local councils.

The row centres around the health and safety form, 696.

It's voluntary and the Metropolitan Police's head of Clubs and Vice, Detective Superintendent Richard Martin says it's necessary to help keep fans safe.

"I don't want to affect anybody's life unnecessarily," he said. "I just want them to have a good time, but have a good time and go home safely and that's all this is about.

"What it's actually about is everything that's around it. So who's going? What's the audience going to be like? Are there any gangs going? Will there be any violence? So it's not really about the artist at all."

Cancelled tour

The original form asked for details of ethnic groups likely to attend the performance, but that version was revised in December 2008.

He said: "It's a two-page form which asks for the details of the artist that's playing, details around the security that's being put on around the event, where they've played before and that allows us to search some databases, look at some intelligence and see whether there's any risk involved."

Police say it is necessary to track artists and promoters who have attracted problems, allowing officers to prevent violence by putting extra security in place or shutting down shows.

Rapper Giggs says filling out the form led to his UK tour being cancelled earlier this year.

"They do it in a clever way," he said. "They don't exactly cancel the show, they go past the promoters straight to venue owners and tell them, 'You can have Giggs at your show, but if something happens, you're not going to get your licence back'.

"They kind of lean on them and then obviously venue owners don't want to lose their licence so they are like, 'Forget the whole thing. It's not worth it'."

Shut down

Detective Superintendent Richard Martin responded: "All the violence and the issues that we had were from promoted music events, ones that seemed to happen after 10 o'clock at night.

"So there was a time where it got more dangerous. And it was mainly recorded music and we didn't see anything, no events or issues around live music.

"So there was no point getting people in live music to fill out this form."

1xtra's DJ Target, who's also in Roll Deep, says he's also had issues.

"It's sort of like a bit of a hindrance to be honest," he said. "We pass every time, but it sometimes can get nights locked off, because other people on the line-up haven't passed it or it's just a bit tricky."

BBC Radio 1xtra News also spoke to a promoter who wanted to remain anonymous in order to keep getting acts on stage.

He said: "They've had problems with particular artists that have been flagged up following filling in the form. Giggs is one.

"If you're doing anything that involves grime, hip hop, Ragga or Bashment, it actually lists those genres as examples you have to put down if you're throwing an event."

Detective Superintendent Richard Martin says even if an event is deemed high risk, it doesn't mean they will be shut down.

"If you fill it out, what it allows us to do is check things that you might not be able to know."