Football: Racism

Lord Bassam of Brighton Excerpts

Tuesday 15th October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Barran]

I thank the noble Lord. In response, I repeat the spirit of the comments made by my honourable friend in the other place. He is open to meetings and to supporting every effort in this area. We are clear that the football authorities need to be in the lead in solving this but, as the noble Lord noted, Governments can be useful in supporting them. My honourable friend the Minister is committed to doing that.

[Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)]

My Lords, it is 19 years since I took legislation through this House to tackle racism and hooliganism in our stadia. Will the Minister now look again at the legislation and consider making racist chanting and other racist behaviour in stadia a more severe and aggravated offence? Will she also press ministerial colleagues to ensure that international standards on this subject are raised and brought in line with those in this country? We have led the way in tackling these issues.

[Baroness Barran]

That was before my time, but I commend the noble Lord for the work he led in this area. I am happy to take away his suggestions and consider them. The Government have been active in trying to work with the football authorities; we met them in February this year. Actions were published in July, and we are keen to see how those translate into practice.

Brexit: Audio-visual Services

Lord Bassam of Brighton Excerpts

Monday 29th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

My Lords, I am very pleased to confirm to the noble Lord that we will treat this as a priority. Of course he is right that the broadcasting industries are one of the UK’s success stories. In fact, 55% of the TV channels based in the UK mainly targeted the European market in 2016, and 53% of the video-on-demand services primarily targeted the EU. It is definitely one of the top priorities of my department, and we communicate regularly with the Department for Exiting the European Union to ensure that it is one of its.

[Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)]

My Lords, given that the multichannel sector is worth £4.2 billion a year to the UK economy, can the Minister explain how the Government intend to guarantee access to EU markets, given that EU rules will require broadcasters to make editorial decisions and deploy their workforce within the EU post Brexit?

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

The noble Lord has put his finger on the fact that it will be a challenge but, luckily, it is one we are up to. The point to bear in mind is that a European country which receives, on average, 45% of its channels from abroad—for some smaller countries, it is 75%—wants a respected regulator which will make sure that the channels it receives are up to standard, and that is exactly what the UK provides.

Data Protection Bill [HL]

Lord Bassam of Brighton Excerpts

Report: 3rd sitting Hansard: House of Lords
Wednesday 10th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Noble Lords]

No!

[Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)]

We have had the debate already. We should now move to the vote.

[Lord Finkelstein]

I am just asking a question, although I thank the noble Lord for his advice. There is a consequent question, subject to the vote we have just had, that I think changes the situation. I just wanted to have my noble friend Lord Attlee’s view—