London mayor Sadiq Khan orders review of the 696 form, long used to target a disproportionate number of music events by black and Asian artists

The Metropolitan police are to review their 696 form, which critics have said is used to unfairly target grime, garage and basement venues.

The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has asked for the form to be re-examined after meeting several DJs, artists and venue owners, who all raised concerns about how it is being used.

The form, which was first introduced in 2005 as a risk assessment for live music to prevent violence, has long been used to target a disproportionate number of music events by black and Asian artists, particularly garage, grime and bashment.

Khan said that the form “shouldn’t compromise the capital’s vibrant grassroots music industry or unfairly target one community or music genre”.

The 696 form has meant artists such as the rapper Giggs have been almost unable to play shows in London, because the police have decided he presents too much of a risk due to his background. “They need to work with us. If they think there’s a threat then help us – put some police out there and work with us rather than just shutting us down,” Giggs said last year.

Alan Miller, chair of the Night Time Industries Association, said that it was time the form was scrapped and new measures brought in. “This form has been a big problem for venue and promoters and it’s stifling certain types of nightlife,” he said.

“Obviously we want events to be policed and to be safe but it is being used by police to target nights by black artists because they see those nights as being more aggressive and harder to control and more associated with gang crime.

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“And if there is an incident at an event where it’s a bunch of white lads, it’s treated as an isolated incident, but if it’s mainly black kids involved then it becomes associated with an entire event or genre of music, so that’s how it’s decided that grime or garage nights as a whole are too dangerous to put on. The 696 form means that keeps happening.”

Police have denied accusations that the form racially discriminates against certain acts or audiences, though a recent BBC report found that some police forces outside London which have also started using the form still ask for the ethnic makeup of the audience attending.

Last year, the police used the 696 form to enforce a so-called “bashment ban” at a bar in Croydon, after the Jamaican music was deemed “unacceptable” by the borough, a move which was seen to directly discriminate against the black and Asian community.

In the comment by the Met on the form review, Supt Roy Smith said that “so far in 2017 no events have been cancelled at the request of the police following the submission of a Form 696”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest J Hus, who was nominated for the Mercury prize this year, had to do a nationwide tour without a London date Photograph: Ross Gilmore/Getty Images

However, the Guardian has been informed that several gigs by black artists have been cancelled by the police at short notice this year, using the form, after concerns were raised by police. J Hus, who was nominated for the Mercury prize this year, had to do a nationwide tour without a London date because the 696 form makes it almost impossible for venues in the capital to book him without police objection.

Similarly, east London rapper Kojo Funs had his show at the Borderline in March cancelled two days before he was due to play, after the Met got in touch with the venue over concerns about his “online beef” with J Hus.

Khan’s review has the backing of the culture minister, Matt Hancock, who said the current form was an “injustice”. “London’s live music scene needs support. We want to see an end to the use of form 696 which is too often a barrier to live music and particularly targets acts from ethnic minority backgrounds,” Hancock said.

It is not the first time the form has been reviewed. In 2009, an open letter was sent to the government’s equalities watchdog. It stated: “We are deeply concerned that Form 696 has the potential to be misused by the police to discriminate against ethnic minorities … There is now a danger that police across the country will adopt this measure and further entrench this illiberal and potentially racist practice.”

The letter led to a question asking about the specific type of music that would be played being taken off the form, though at the time the move was described by Feargal Sharkey, former lead singer of the Undertones, as an “exercise in semantics”.

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Journalist Dan Hancox, who is writing about about the emergence of the London grime scene, said: “They changed the form in 2009 to supposedly stop racial profiling but if anything, they are targeting more black music nights now using 696 than they did then.”

“I don’t think people understand how this really disproportionately affects smaller promoters, smaller acts, smaller venues, whose livelihoods are really under threat,” said Hancox.

“The use and abuse of form 696 threatens to choke up-and-coming artists and promoters. These are the Skeptas and Wileys of the next generation who are having their ability to perform live stifled, and being prevented from coming through.”