Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill

Debate between Jacob Rees-Mogg and Sajid Javid

Friday 21st January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady seems to suggest that anyone who earns a profit over a certain margin must be engaged in some kind of criminal or fraudulent activity, and that is clearly not the case. I hope that she accepts that, as has been mentioned, many ticket touts—perhaps the vast majority—are legitimate, have got the tickets in an honest way, and are not engaged in any kind of criminal or illegitimate activity at all.

[Jacob Rees-Mogg]

I wonder whether my hon. Friend might cast his mind over the issue of people buying up large numbers of tickets. Is that not actually enormously to the advantage of promoters of events, who are guaranteed a certain number of sales—the tickets may not be sold on subsequently—and get their cash flow early on? It is not simply a case of the practice disadvantaging the personal shopper.

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend makes a fair point. In some cases, that can be advantageous, but I accept that where there is clearly very high demand, there are sometimes good reasons to restrict the number of tickets that an individual can buy.