Football Governance Bill [HL]

Lord Hayward Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 4th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

No, it cannot.

[Lord Hayward (Con)]

Before the Minister sits down, perhaps I could make a comment. The Minister has been very helpful in offering meetings to discuss a whole range of issues that arise, which we greatly appreciate, and to write beforehand. On one thing which she touched on—I will obviously have to read Hansard very carefully to check, because she moved on fairly quickly—was why companies legislation was not acceptable for the Bill. I just register that I would like when we meet to discuss this more fully. She referred to Companies Act legislation being very lengthy, but I am not clear on why, if it is acceptable in general Companies Act legislation, it is not acceptable here. We can discuss that, but I just wanted to register it at this point so that when we meet, it is a subject for conversation.

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I am happy to go into more detail on that point when I meet the noble Lord and I will ask my officials to contact him to set up a meeting.

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[Lord Hayward (Con)]

I echo the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Birt, about a conflict of interest. I take the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Addington: making small or one-off contributions because you have been asked to, given that you hold that particular role, is very different from having a specific and clear role in the media. There would be a conflict of interest if you held both positions and were contributing on a regular basis. I cannot see that it would be perceived by the average fan as acceptable to have someone who held both positions.

My noble friend Lord Parkinson has included in his amendment the word “currently”. I assume that he would accept someone giving up one role specifically to take up another—I think that is what he is referring to—but I certainly take the view that any substantial media interest would be utterly unacceptable for someone in these circumstances. Millions of football fans would take the view that they were pro a particular point of view at any given point.

I share the view of the noble Lord, Lord Londesborough, on salaries, particularly because it is always dangerous to put a salary in legislation. What happens if you have inflation? First, you have to change the primary legislation, and there is no indication of inflation adjustment in the amendment.

Those are small observations, but I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Birt, and the direction of my noble friend Lord Parkinson’s amendment—that there should not be a prima facie case of conflict of interest in these circumstances.

--- Later in debate ---

That would be one of the key areas on which a parliamentary committee would seek to interrogate the new independent football regulator.

[Lord Hayward (Con)]

Since my noble friend is referring to a letter that was addressed to me, I assure him that in the debate on another amendment I shall return in far greater detail to this letter, not least because the first heading of the letter refers to “Exact cost”. I never asked for exact costs. I preferred to use the word “probably”.

[Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Con)]

Your Lordships and I can rely on my noble friend’s forensic interrogation of the letter and the Bill generally. I know that we will come back to this issue.

I mentioned proportionality and a final example is the framework document, which has a strange description on page 2 of the letter. It says:

“DCMS as the sponsor department will agree a ‘framework document’ with the Regulator”.


It will be up to a parliamentary committee to look at what the point of that framework document is and whether its delivery by the regulator is efficacious. We need to know about the accounting officer. We need to know about the role of the National Audit Office and how it will intervene and work with the department, the regulator itself and any parliamentary committee. The levy, the proportionality and the cost are all areas where Parliament has a very important role to play.

I think we have reached the turning point in trusting regulators to discharge their duties without appropriate and close examination by legislators. That is our job and the job of those elected in the other place. Because the weather has changed for regulators, we no longer implicitly trust them to be full of experts and to do their job effectively. As my right honourable friend the former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, “In God we trust, everyone else bring data”. I am not just looking at the right reverend Prelate when I say that. The serious point is that we need to see that the regulator is doing its job. We cannot rely on just undertakings and assurances. We need the proper statutory function of a committee to oversee the work of the regulator. On that basis, I warmly support my noble friend’s excellent amendment.