Oral Answers to Questions

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Thursday 15th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

It has now been three months since the £60 million swimming pool support fund was announced, and still nobody has received any money. As the Minister has said, £23 million is revenue funding, which according to the Local Government Association works out at only £25,000 per pool, and that will not arrive until September. The rest is capital, which will be allocated by a yet to be determined bidding process and will not happen until December. Why is it taking so long to get even this level of support out when our swimming pools are at risk of closure?

Oral Answers to Questions

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Thursday 1st December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Michelle Donelan]

We on the Government Benches understand how important it is to get this right, and we will get it right. We will put fans’ voices right at the heart of what we do, and ensure that whatever we do has the teeth to ensure change.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

In the years since the fan-led review was published, Southend United faced a winding-up petition and a transfer embargo after financial failings; Derby County was in administration; Chelsea could only carry on because of special exemptions when its owner was sanctioned; and the Mayor of the West Midlands wrote to the Football League to express his worries that Birmingham City’s future is in jeopardy under its current ownership. Which clubs will face trouble next year, the year after, or each year until the Government stop delaying the introduction of an independent regulator? The Prime Minister committed to implementing all the recommendations of the review, so why do they not just get on with it? After the next election, a Labour Government will.

[Michelle Donelan]

After the next election, a Conservative Government will continue to get on with the job, as we have always been doing. The Government recognise the importance of acting decisively, but also of getting this policy right; we have been considering it and consulting very carefully. Of course, in the meantime, those in football can take forward some of the reforms themselves, including financial redistribution, which we continue to urge them to do. The report will be imminent.

--- Later in debate ---

[Cat Smith]

The commission has consistently made the case before the roll-out of voter ID requirements that, should they be rolled out, there should be a free voter authority certificate available via local authorities. The legislation to make provision for that was laid before the House recently and will be debated on the Floor of the House on 12 December.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

rose—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

I am terribly sorry, but the hon. Gentleman has lost his opportunity. Never mind—next time.

150th Open Championship

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 13th July 2022 Westminster Hall

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Hollobone. I congratulate the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) on securing the debate. She gave a really interesting speech about Scotland’s proud golfing history and the importance of golf in her constituency. I would never have imagined the link between Jack Nicklaus and Benjamin Franklin—I will know that for future pub quizzes.

When we think about the great British sporting events, we think about Wimbledon, the FA cup final, the grand national, the Ashes and the Open—especially the Open at St Andrews, the home of golf. We look forward to this weekend’s 150th edition of arguably the world’s greatest golf tournament.

Research estimates that last year’s 149th Open at Royal St George’s brought a £113 million economic boost to Kent, the host county. Kent also gained an additional £94 million in gross advertising revenue thanks to the thousands of hours of global television coverage, traditional TV and online news coverage, digital streaming and social media content. That is in a year hit by covid challenges, so the Open is a real economic opportunity.

This year, we are set to have the highest attendance yet, so the Open could be even more of an economic boost for Fife. A record-breaking 290,000 fans are expected to attend, and the R&A says it received more than 1.3 million requests for tickets. Hosting such an event is fantastic for an area, bringing thousands of people to spend their money while enjoying the scenery, cafes, pubs, restaurants, arts and crafts, and independent shops.

St Andrews is a seaside town with a population of under 20,000, and it is expecting 250,000 visitors. Even if the trains were running smoothly, accommodating that number of people is always a challenge, but the Scottish National party’s ScotRail cuts and the temporary timetable have caused real problems on Scotland’s trains in recent months. A pay deal may have been agreed, but that may well have come too late for some of the thousands of visitors heading to St Andrews this weekend.

I echo the plea of the hon. Member for North East Fife for people to go early and use the park and ride. That is sensible advice for visitors. A ScotRail spokesman has said that the operator expects to run a quarter of the trains that it had planned for the Open, and the R&A has warned that fans who travel to the Open by train may find that there are no services to get them home. That it is a real worry. The lack of trains is likely to lead to thousands of fans filling the roads, and we hope it does not lead to problematic congestion for local residents. The problems on the trains have certainly hit businesses, tourist destinations and passengers for weeks, and the Government really need to get the basics right.

The last couple of years have been difficult for businesses, especially those such as golf that rely heavily on inbound visitors. Pre-pandemic, Scotland attracted around 17.5 million overnight visitors every year, which generated £5.9 billion in visitor spend, and an additional 134 million day trips were taken, with visitors spending £5.8 billion. In Scotland, spending by tourists generates around £12 billion of economic activity for the wider tourism supply chain and contributes around £6 billion—about 5%—to Scottish GDP.

Office for National Statistics figures suggest that accommodation and food services—the services most strongly linked to tourism—were affected worse in Scotland than in any other of the four nations by the pandemic restrictions. Even now, with the majority of restrictions lifted, a recent survey by the Scottish Tourism Alliance found that half of businesses have fewer bookings than normal for the summer period, compared with the same timeframe in 2019, and 40% reported a fall in spend since May 2021. The recovery is difficult and slow.

Scottish Labour has called for a new national plan for tourism to build a sustainable recovery and ensure that key tourist destinations have the infrastructure and investment to support demand. Scotland’s tourism sector can at least be happy that the Scottish Government are investing more generously in it than the UK Government are in English tourism. A recent Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee oral evidence session revealed that the finances devolved to VisitScotland are, in relative terms, something like six or seven times the core funding available to VisitEngland.

As a United Kingdom, our sporting culture is one of the biggest draws for visitors. In 2017, more than 2 million visitors went to a live sport event as part of their trip to the UK, which is 6% of all visits that year; more than 350,000 inbound visitors played golf during their trip to the UK, spending about £418 million; and 18,000 international visitors watched a live golf event during their stay, spending at least £30 million. Scottish tourism is still on a shaky road to recovery but, after a difficult few years, golf appears to be on the up and can play a key role in driving that tourism. As we know, when people come to play golf, it is not just the golf courses that profit but the tour operators, local accommodation, local restaurants, pubs and bars, taxi drivers, golf equipment shops, and everybody in the various supply chains.

Importantly, the nature of golf means that it is played in wide open spaces and is often naturally socially distanced. Back in the days when I used to hack around the public courses in Manchester, I was always socially distanced from my fellow players—and from the fairway. That aspect of the sport means that many people have been able to enjoy it as a form of entertainment and exercise with a low covid risk. In most places, golf courses reopened sooner than other sports facilities after the covid restrictions ended.

The rise of the sport’s profile appears to have further boosted participation. A survey of 99 UK golf clubs found that four in five members’ clubs and nine in 10 proprietary venues reported growth last year. According to research by the R&A and Sports Marketing Surveys, the total number of people who played a round of golf in the British Isles nearly doubled from 2.9 million in 2019 to 5.2 million in 2020. It is also fantastic that women are increasingly embracing the sport. The number of women players grew from just over 400,000 in 2019 to 1.46 million—28% of all golfers—in 2020. There is still a long way to go, but professional women’s golf is also enjoying a significant rise.

Meanwhile, the first Disabled Golf Week will take place across Scotland this year to coincide with the 150th Open at St Andrews. Organised by Scottish Disability Golf and Curling, the programme of events will aim to introduce people of all ages, with any kind of disability or serious health issue, to golf with training and tuition. It is good to see golf taking those strides towards greater accessibility and inclusion to enrich the sport further. Not only is the 150th Open championship set to provide a fantastic sporting event and a cultural and economic boost to Fife, Scotland and the rest of the UK, but it will help to inspire a diverse range of people to pick up a club—perhaps for the first time—and to get more physically active.

Last week, a report by the National Audit Office concluded that the Government had essentially squandered much of the legacy of the 2012 Olympics by failing to make meaningful inroads in boosting people’s physical activity levels. Let us hope that the legacy of the 150th Open championship has a different fate and that the event inspires people to get involved in sport and physical activity. Let us also hope for a fantastic few days of golf ahead of us.

BBC Charter: Regional Television News

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 12th July 2022 Westminster Hall

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Robertson, and to be speaking in this debate on behalf of the Opposition. It is good to see the Minister back in his place. I want to speak about the wider issues around the charter and licence fee as well as the issues we have heard about local news in the south-east. I congratulate the hon. Member for Aylesbury (Rob Butler) on securing the debate and providing a good overview. As a former broadcast journalist, he speaks with authority and is acutely aware of the importance of having well-resourced public service broadcasters delivering for local people, particularly in the light of the decline of local print journalism. He made some interesting points about striking the right balance between local TV news and digital provision in the digital age.

For the BBC to remain a world-class institution, it needs to be properly resourced so it can deliver for the digital age and beyond the 2020s. When the Secretary of State announced the licence fee freeze in January and suggested that it might be the last licence fee settlement—which happened just as Operation Save Big Dog commenced and, indeed, perhaps as part of it—we were worried. Thankfully the licence fee has lasted longer than Big Dog, but after—as usual—briefing the media first, the Secretary of State eventually made a statement to the House and told us about the freeze. She intimated that the licence fee would end in 2027 and, in future, the BBC should look to the models of American streaming giants, such as Amazon or Netflix. Since then, Netflix has lost over 200,000 subscribers and seen its share price fall by over 60%.

As well as the increase in the subscription cost, another key reason why subscribers are turning away in their droves is the lack of original and distinct programming being commissioned by the streaming giant, with many saying that the subscription was no longer value for money. Netflix announced last month that it has to lay off 300 employees. Is that the future the Government want to see for the BBC?

The past few months have demonstrated the instability and volatility of a streaming model. It would not deliver the long-term security and stability for the BBC that the Government claim to be the objective. Labour values and cherishes our great British institutions, such as the BBC. The BBC is loved at home and envied around the world, but as it approaches its 100th birthday—when we should be celebrating its success—its future once again looks uncertain. It is worth reminding hon. Members just how much we get out of the BBC. It is not only a news and broadcast service envied around the world, it provides a huge number of skilled jobs for people the length and breadth of the UK. It gives us a sense of—particularly regional—identity and unity, and that has been reflected in today’s contributions.

The BBC has a diverse range of content across multiple platforms, which appeals to people of all ages, areas and backgrounds. It is because of the licence fee that BBC Bitesize came to the aid of 5.8 million children during lockdown as parents juggled work with the challenges of home schooling. BBC content creators pulled out all the stops to continue educating our young people during the biggest public health crisis in a century. It is far more than just a producer of programmes; it is a curator of content from children’s television to hard-hitting documentaries and in-depth global news reporting. Of course, the digital and streaming revolutions are upon us, and the BBC must continue to keep pace with the changing media landscape as it has done with BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds. However, the Government need to be clear about how the broadcaster will be funded beyond 2027.

With inflation running at a 40-year high and in the light of the licence fee freeze, the broadcaster has already had to start prioritising some sorts of programming over others. Further delay will only lead to British jobs and content being outsourced abroad. As the shadow Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Central (Lucy Powell), said,

“cultural vandalism is not patriotic.”

The BBC is one of the most powerful aspects of our soft power. Around the world the BBC is trusted and respected for its impartiality, professionalism and skilled reporting. Nowhere has that come more to the fore than in its reporting on Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine. The Government like to talk about the UK being a soft power superpower, but how can that status be enhanced or maintained when they place such uncertainty on a cultural institution as important as the BBC? It is the only public service broadcaster from any country that reaches half a billion people a week.

Many questions remain on the future capability and ability of the BBC to continue as a world-class news broadcaster. It is still unclear how the merger between BBC News and BBC World News will look in practice and what effect that will have on how much it can cover, particularly when it comes to investigative international reporting. Our international news reporting is the envy of the world but, as we have heard clearly from around the Chamber, we must remember the dedicated teams and crews that make up local news reporting across the United Kingdom. Local news reporting is such an important grassroots component of the BBC, connecting communities to the issues happening locally around them. I therefore agree that it is disappointing that, as part of the digital first strategy, local news coverage is being squeezed, with dedicated frontline reporting one of the casualties.

As we have heard, local news bulletins on BBC One in Cambridgeshire and Oxfordshire will be scrapped, with a single pan-regional edition of “South Today” from Southampton taking their place and covering the whole region. The recently launched regional investigative news programme “We Are England” is also to be scrapped barely a year after it was commissioned.

My hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) and others talked about the importance of the local aspect of news reporting, and many communities outside the big cities will fear that with a reduction in frontline journalists and more regional programming, they will become merely a footnote in the broadcaster’s output. The BBC says that it will keep its news gathering teams in both the Oxford and Cambridge hubs, but I absolutely understand the worries expressed by Members from those areas that they will not have their own dedicated regional coverage.

An increased digital presence is welcome in the modern age, but it cannot replace journalists on the ground in their communities, reporting for their communities, understanding the issues on the ground and reflecting them in regional coverage. The Government say that their priorities are to ensure that the nations and regions of the United Kingdom, and not just London and the south-east, are prioritised for jobs, infrastructure projects and economic development. The BBC’s Media City in Salford, close to my constituency, provides more than 3,000 skilled jobs and has helped to foster a dynamic economic cluster. I have to say that it has raised house prices in my constituency. That would seem a model example of what levelling-up looks like in action, creating more skilled jobs and roles outside the capital.

To appreciate the BBC, we should look at the statistics. BBC services are used by nearly 100% of UK adults every month. The BBC is the most popular media brand among young people, reaching 80% of young adults on average per week. Over the covid period when schools had to shut their doors and move online, millions of families discovered the brilliance of BBC Bitesize.

Even those who are sceptical of the BBC, when tested, had a new-found respect for it. The BBC recently published the findings of a deprivation study in which 80 homes had no access to BBC services or content for nine days. It found that 70% of those who initially said they would rather do without the BBC, or prefer to pay less for it, changed their minds and were willing to pay the full licence fee or more to keep BBC services and content.

Rather than the constant sniping and funding insecurity that we see under this Government, a Labour Government would work towards a long-term settlement that would ensure that our great British content and great local reporting could survive and thrive. We would talk up rather than kick down the brilliant reporters, presenters, musicians, actors and technical staff who make our soft-power giant what it is.

The licence fee still represents excellent value for money for consumers, so the Government need to confirm that any future funding model that they might contemplate will continue to offer viewers and listeners so much and such value. The BBC needs clarity about its future so that it can continue to modernise and continue to inform, educate and entertain for the next 100 years as it has done so brilliantly for the past 100 years.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Thursday 7th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

It looks as though the Secretary of State will shortly have a lot more spare time on her hands, perhaps for more sport and physical activity, but that becomes much harder if leisure facilities and swimming pools close because of high fuel costs and reduced footfall. Operators are really worried. What more will the Government do to support local authorities and the rest of the sector as they face the Tory cost of living crisis?

[Ms Dorries]

The leisure centre sector was supported with £100 million throughout the pandemic. We continue to work, and discuss ongoing issues, with the sector, but I am delighted that we are seeing improvements across all leisure sectors.

Derby County Football Club

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 28th June 2022 Westminster Hall

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Hollobone. I congratulate the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Mrs Latham) on securing the debate and very clearly setting out the history and importance of this issue, as well as the pressure of the deadline; I think she used the phrase “one minute to midnight”, and that is how it feels with the deadline coming up tomorrow. Both the hon. Lady and my right hon. Friend the Member for Derby South (Margaret Beckett) set out the concerns and frustrations of people in Derby and fans of the club. They particularly mentioned the issues with the EFL’s behaviour, as well as that of the administrator; we hope that after tomorrow we will be able to look at those questions with more time to judge them. They also expressed praise for Wayne Rooney, and I echo that praise, although as a Manchester City fan I do so through gritted teeth—a Manchester City fan living the dream, as was said earlier.

We also send our best wishes to Liam Rosenior and the limited band of players he now has to work with. We wish them well for the new season, because the last 300 days have been a tough time to be a Derby County fan. A club such as Derby is the heart and soul of its community, a source of pride and identity for its supporters, and to see your club in administration and on the brink of going out of business—to see your team relegated, not because the players were not good enough, but because of points lost due to bad administration—is tough.

For hope to be raised, as it was when a deal seemed to have been struck with Chris Kirchner, and then dashed as that deal fell apart, is also tough. The uncertainty that has prevailed until recently, when the David Clowes bid was accepted, has been a very difficult time for supporters to endure. Let us hope that the fans’ ordeal is now coming to an end and that the deal goes through tomorrow. It is very positive that Mr Clowes is already involved in actively supporting the club. He is a genuine supporter of Derby County, and it is good news that he now owns the stadium, Pride Park. As we heard from the hon. Member for North West Leicestershire (Andrew Bridgen), it is never good when the ownership of a club and its stadium are separated.

We all hope that Mr Clowes will be the owner that Derby needs, and will be able to stabilise that club and return it to its former glories, because it is hard to overestimate the importance of a football club to its local community. The loss of a club would leave a hole in people’s lives, which is why it is so important that we protect our football clubs with a governance framework that safeguards those clubs for future generations. That is why I join other right hon. and hon. Members in urging the Government to move quickly and bring forward detail on the future of football governance, because this situation is just the latest crisis that demonstrates that we cannot afford to wait. It is yet more compelling evidence that the Government need to act quickly to implement the recommendations of the fan-led review and ensure that football has a governance regime that is fit for purpose, safeguards our great clubs and our national game, and—as the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire pointed out—gives fans a voice.

On the subject of fan and stakeholder voices, the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tracey Crouch) —sadly, she is not present today—did a fantastic job of consulting all the stakeholders in football to set out a recipe for the future of football. Her set of proposals would put much-needed independent regulation in place, protect the heritage of our clubs and, vitally, create a structure of financial and governance oversight that would mean club owners would not be able to risk the future of their clubs in pursuit of success.

I remind Members that when the football review panel led by the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford met Mel Morris, the previous owner of Derby County, shortly after her interim recommendations were published, that panel asked him specifically whether he thought the club would be in a different situation if an independent regulator and real-time financial monitoring had been in place. He said, “Yes, without a doubt.” To me, that shines a light on the need for independent regulation and a governance structure that is fit for purpose. The hon. Member for Amber Valley (Nigel Mills) is absolutely right: we do not want football to be ruled by litigation in future

The case is clear, and the Government have accepted that case and the need for change—I have welcomed the Minister’s assurances on that point on a number of occasions—yet the Bill is delayed and a White Paper is due. I appreciate that the Government say that it is a complicated issue, which it is, and that we need to get the details right. However, the longer we leave it, the more likely it is that another club will be in crisis like Bury or Derby, so I seek some reassurances from the Minister. When are we likely to see more detail and the White Paper? Importantly, what is the timescale after that for implementation? It is looking increasingly unlikely that we will see a Bill before the next election, whenever that might be. I hope the Minister is able to correct me on that, but it just feels and looks unlikely at this stage, and fans and stakeholders in the game are all frustrated at the slow progress on this issue. We need to see action to safeguard our clubs and to make sure that the situation with Derby does not happen again.

I want to finish by wishing Derby good luck. We all have our fingers crossed that the deal will go through tomorrow and give their fans some comfort that the club is now safe, and that they can look forward to the new season with optimism. Let us make sure that this does not happen to any other clubs in the future.

Antisemitism and Other Racism in Football

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd June 2022 Westminster Hall

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

I congratulate the right hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) on securing the debate. We have had excellent speeches, from my hon. Friends the Members for Canterbury (Rosie Duffield) and for Bury South (Christian Wakeford), and across the Chamber.

We agree that football is a game that brings people together. It can break down divides, foster friendships and create a positive sense of community. But a minority of fans bring unacceptable attitudes and language. UK football policing authorities note that there was an increase in hate crime incidents reported in stadiums in the first half of last season. After two incidents in one weekend at the end of the season, the anti-racism charity Kick It Out commented that “hate is alive and well” in the game.

According to a FIFA report, more than half the players in the most recent Euro 2020 and Africa Cup of Nations finals were abused online before, during and after the game. We remember today the appalling reaction from some England fans to England’s loss in the Euro finals and the racist targeting of Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho. We still have a lot to do.

It is important to address antisemitism in the context of a worrying upturn in antisemitic hate crime in the UK. In recent years, as we have heard in this debate, Jewish fans have been abused at matches and Nazi salutes have been used. Antisemitic slurs are still used online in relation to football. Antisemitic chants are still sometimes sung from football stands across Europe. The authorities really need to do more to tackle that. The Antisemitism Policy Trust has documented antisemitic incidents in football internationally, but also highlights good examples of how we can respond.

Chelsea fans have been involved in several incidents of antisemitism, but the club has taken a strong stand and been praised for its response. Last year it won the King David Award from the European Jewish Association. Its “Say No to Antisemitism” campaign has been educating the clubs, players, staff, fans and community about antisemitism and football.

Another club taking action is, of course, Tottenham. This year the club urged supporters to move on from using the Y-word after consultation with fans and Jewish groups. I recently met Ashley Lerner, the chief executive of Maccabi GB—and a Spurs fan—to discuss this issue among others. Maccabi is an excellent charity that promotes British Jews’ health, wellbeing and participation in sport. The history of the Y-word at Spurs is complex. I used to go and watch Man City at White Hart Lane in the ’80s, and Spurs fans used to use the term to take ownership and as a badge of pride. However, times and attitudes change. While not all Jewish Spurs fans find the word offensive, it is widely regarded as an antisemitic slur and the majority of those surveyed by Spurs agreed it was a racist word. We support the club’s efforts to ditch the Y-word.

There are good initiatives to tackle racism more widely, such as Kick It Out, as I have mentioned. In 2020 the Football Association launched its football leadership diversity code. Last year the Premier League launched its “No room for racism” action plan, which accompanies a new equality, diversity and inclusion standard that has been applied to all clubs. These are all steps in the right direction. The fan-led review of football governance proposes an independent regulator, which Labour wants to see in place as soon as possible, that can set clear equality, diversity and inclusion standards that clubs must meet as part of their licensing conditions. However, we will not have an independent regulator until 2024 at the earliest, so what action can the Government take now to ensure that football improves efforts to tackle discrimination?

I want to mention Baroness Casey’s review of the chaos at the Euro 2020 men’s finals at Wembley. She highlighted the unacceptable racist actions of some of those present, as well as online after the match, and called for more action. Her review, published last December, highlights some pressing issues on safety. When will the Government respond to her review?

Finally, Labour welcomes the fact that football banning orders have been extended to those who carry out online racist abuse. However, can the Minister say what conversations he is having with clubs and governing bodies about tackling the rising trend of hate crimes in stadiums? All Members present agree that antisemitism and racism have no place in our society, and they should have no place in football. We must redouble our efforts to kick them out.

[Graham Stringer (in the Chair)]

Would the Minister leave a couple of minutes at the end for the proposer of the debate to wind up?

Football Index Collapse

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 7th June 2022 Westminster Hall

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

It is good to see you in the Chair, Ms Ghani. I pass on the apologies of the shadow Minister responsible for gambling, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), for her absence. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) on securing this debate, and thank her for everything she does in fighting for justice for those affected by the collapse of Football Index.

Like me, most MPs will have heard examples of the devastating impact of the Football Index collapse on their constituents. The sheer number of MPs wanting to take part in an hour-long debate is evidence of the seriousness of the issue. Members on both sides of the Chamber have made excellent speeches articulating the pain that many of our constituents have gone through. People have lost tens of thousands of pounds that were supposed to be for their families’ future. Marriages and relationships have fallen apart. The stress and guilt of the experience have induced severe physical health problems; people are even suffering from depression and becoming suicidal. It should never have been allowed to happen.

It is clear that there has been a massive failure of regulation. When the Government commissioned their report on the collapse, there were concerns among those affected that the review did not sufficiently interrogate or challenge the Gambling Commission’s explanation of events, and I would be grateful to hear the Minister’s comments on those concerns. Nevertheless, the report identified clear failings: BetIndex did not properly notify the Gambling Commission of the nature of and changes to the product in its licensing application; the Gambling Commission responded slowly to the challenges raised by the product; and the Financial Conduct Authority could also have done more to help.

Perhaps the most devastating aspect of the scandal is that many of those who ended up losing money believed that what they were doing was safer than what we might call normal gambling. The marketing for the product was couched in the language of investment, not betting, and it was promoted as a safe venture with “guaranteed yields”, which led people into this position. The fact that the product was licensed, appeared in TV and radio adverts and acted as the sponsor on the football shirts of three teams gave it an air of legitimacy that it should not have had. It was a major failing of regulation and demonstrates why we urgently need reform.

Reports suggest that the long-overdue gambling White Paper is finally set to be published this month. I repeat the plea I made to the Minister when we faced each other this morning in this Chamber that this is urgent. Earlier, the Minister said that the White Paper would be published in the coming weeks, which is welcome. Can he confirm that it will be before the summer recess? That would be welcomed by people who have been affected by this scandal and by other problem gambling, because we need the time to assess and debate it.

That kind of wide-ranging and evidence-based reform of our gambling legislation will hopefully prevent anything like this from happening again and impacting on others in future. Of course, the hope of future reform, and the improvements so far from the Gambling Commission, do nothing to help those who have already been impacted. The Government have said that they will not use public funds to provide compensation for the losses caused by the Football Index collapse. They have signposted those affected to seek reimbursement from BetIndex’s liquidation process, but it is becoming clear that the process will not yield enough to those who have been failed.

Many have called for the creation of an ombudsman to get redress for Football Index’s victims. The Opposition think that the Government should look seriously at that useful proposal. There certainly needs to be more action to get redress for victims. The collapse of Football Index has had a shattering impact on many people’s lives. People were badly misled, and our existing regulatory mechanisms failed. It cannot happen again.

Statutory Gambling Levy

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 7th June 2022 Westminster Hall

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

It is always a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Betts. I pass on the apologies of the shadow Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), who is in Committee, as indeed is the Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the hon. Member for Croydon South (Chris Philp) —although it is always a pleasure to see the Minister across the Chamber.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea East (Carolyn Harris) on securing this debate and on her, as always, excellent and comprehensive speech. I congratulate all hon. Members who have taken part, including my hon. Friend the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Gerald Jones). My hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield) spoke powerfully about his constituent Jack, and importantly identified the shortfall in diagnosis and treatment, and the lack of specialist gambling support across the country. I have had a number of meetings with former gambling addicts, and they have often identified that it is really hard to get treatment where they want, as there is a bit of a postcode lottery. Anybody who suggests that an increase in funding is not necessary for the support and treatment of gambling addicts is completely wrong. We have a decided lack of specialist treatment, and we really need to get extra funding into it. That is the heart of the issue.

The right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) was absolutely correct when he said that the people speaking in this debate are not anti-gambling; we are anti-gambling harm. We need to make that important distinction.

As I said when we most recently debated gambling in this place, reform is long overdue and the Government have been dragging their feet. Many forms of gambling are a pastime that lots of people enjoy. They are a source of employment and economic activity for communities in towns and cities across the country. Nobody sensible wants to send gambling to the underground or the black market, but we have to recognise that it can also be a highly addictive activity that damages families and communities. That is why we need action, not more words, from the Government. Time and time again, as we have heard, we have been promised legislation only for it not to materialise.

As we have heard from a number of hon. Members— I have heard this graphically from the relatives of people who have died by suicide and from former gambling addicts—the business models of some gambling companies, and some gambling products, add to significant harms, leading to high levels of problem gambling, mental health issues and, sadly, suicides. Regulation is long overdue, particularly since the huge growth in online and mobile gambling. Smartphones give opportunities to gamble pretty much anywhere, anytime, and the unregulated online spaces fail to protect users.

As we have heard, the Gambling Act 2005 is the basis for the regulation of gambling in Great Britain, but it has not been updated since it was passed and it is not fit for the digital age. The key Conservative manifesto pledge in 2019 was to review gambling laws in response to mounting concerns about how this £14 billion-a-year industry is regulated. The White Paper was originally due to be published before the end of 2021. Labour has been calling on the Government to bring forward gambling legislation for a long time. In 2019, we also committed to introducing a gambling Act.

The delay in tackling this issue is costing money as well as lives. The Public Health England review found that the annual economic burden of harmful gambling is £1.27 billion. That is £647 million in direct costs to the Government and £619 million of wider societal costs associated with suicides. It is about not just lives but money, and we need to address that issue.

Will the Minister confirm when exactly we will see the White Paper? We definitely need to see it in the coming weeks. I agree with the hon. Member for Inverclyde (Ronnie Cowan) that we need to see it long before the summer so we can start discussing these issues. It needs to build on the consensus across the House that we need to bring this regulation into the digital age.

The all-party parliamentary group for gambling related harm, chaired by my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea East, who has campaigned magnificently on this issue, recommended a mandatory levy on the gambling industry to fund research, protection, treatment and education, and address gambling-related harms, including to consider the links between gambling and suicide. At the moment, as we have heard, gambling firms have no mandatory requirement to fund addiction research and treatment services. Many do so through the voluntary scheme, but it is variable and uncertain. That uncertainty makes it difficult to plan long-term projects.

The five big gambling companies have committed to paying 1% of their gross yields towards safer gambling initiatives by 2023, but the variation between online products and their donations is a real issue. The legal power to impose a levy on the gambling industry has existed since 2005, but it has never been used due to the Government’s insistence that the industry should support harm-reduction work on a voluntary basis. I think that the highest figure was last year, with £35 million coming through voluntary donations. It has been estimated that a statutory levy would increase that to around £140 million, but we must put that in perspective: the gambling industry spends £1.5 billion a year just on advertising. That is the scale of the issue. The Government must take this proposal seriously.

My hon. Friend the Member for Swansea East made the important point that a levy should be smart or differentiated to tackle the most dangerous forms of gambling without harming, for example, bingo halls. I should be grateful if the Minister would outline what consideration the Government have given the proposal. We need clarity about what will be in the White Paper and how a statutory levy might work. We absolutely need to tackle gambling harm across the board, so that the families of those who have been immeasurably harmed by gambling can have confidence that what has happened to their loved ones will not happen to others.

[Mr Clive Betts (in the Chair)]

May I ask the Minister to ensure that there are a couple of minutes left for the mover to reply?

Football Governance

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Monday 25th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for his statement and for advance sight of it. I also thank the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Tracey Crouch) and all those who contributed to her excellent and timely review of our national game.

I welcome the confirmation that the Government are supporting the strategic recommendations of the fan-led review. Labour has been calling for the plans to be fully implemented ever since the review was published and, in particular, for the independent regulator for English football, which is key to reform. But however the Government try to spin it, today’s announcement of a White Paper and further delay will come as a disappointment to fans.

The fan-led review was a rigorous and wide-ranging piece of work, based on engagement with every possible interest group alongside more than 20,000 individual fan responses to a survey, and supported by an expert advisory panel from the world of football. As the Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, the hon. Member for Croydon South (Chris Philp), rightly said when doing the media rounds this morning,

“there has been huge input from fans up and down the country”.

Eleven years after the Culture, Media and Sport Committee report, three years after the collapse of Bury, a year after the disastrous European super league proposal and five months after the publication of the fan-led review, we do not need further consultation or a road map. We need a clear timetable and new legislation to be included in the Queen’s Speech in 15 days’ time.

The need for urgent action is clear. Oldham Athletic were relegated from the English football league on Saturday after years of mismanagement ending in fan protests. Derby County are in ongoing crisis and were relegated from the championship this week—not because the players are not good enough, but because of bad owner management and governance. Those two historic clubs, founding members of the premier and football leagues respectively, have been hit hard because of reckless owners.

In the wake of the Ukraine war and sanctions, Chelsea are in limbo. Many supporters want the review recommendations to be incorporated in the club’s sale. The Government are missing an opportunity to embed fan representation, as recommended in the review, and give supporters a say on changes to the heritage assets of their club.

The Minister’s statement, although welcome, left some questions unanswered. The Minister could not rule out to the Select Committee recently that a regulator might be located within the FA. Can he do so now? We believe that it is vital for the regulator to be truly independent.

The statement confirmed that the Government are accepting all 10 of the strategic recommendations. That is good, but can the Minister confirm that the Government support the 47 detailed recommendations in the report? Perhaps more importantly, are there any that they do not support?

The announcement today will do nothing to break the impasse on the redistribution of funding. The fan-led review gave the Premier League and the EFL until the end of 2021 to work it out between them, but that has not happened: the bodies have not been able to come to an agreement for months. If they fail, the review proposes action from the regulator, but on the current timescale—unless the Minister can tell me otherwise—a regulator will not be in place until at least 2024. At what point will he intervene urgently to get the Premier League and the EFL to an agreement?

The dedicated review of women’s football, which was an important recommendation in the review, is really welcome. Can the Minister give any more detail on who will chair it, what timescale it might follow and how its recommendations will be taken forward in due course?

The Government have said all along, quite rightly, that they accept in principle the proposals in the review, so let us get on with it. We are already too late for Bury, Derby and Oldham. If further clubs go under or suffer because of delays to the implementation of the review, responsibility will rest partly on the Government’s shoulders. The Labour party is happy to work with the Government to find space for legislation sooner rather than later. The right result is already clear; we do not need extra time. For the future of our national game, let us see legislation in the Queen’s Speech and action as quickly as possible.

[Nigel Huddleston]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments. May I put on record my thanks and gratitude for the genuinely positive and constructive tone that we have had from him, from the Opposition DCMS team and from Members across the House?

There is a clear cross-party intent to move forward. I can say definitely to the hon. Gentleman that there is no intent to delay: we want to move forward as soon as possible. A White Paper is not an unusual step to take in bringing legislation to the House. It will also give others the opportunity to make additional comments as we move to the final stages of what is one of the most fundamental transformations in English football.

It is important that we get this right. It is incredibly complex: we will be bringing in incredible rigour and discipline, particularly financial discipline, for clubs, which has not happened before. If we were expected to bring in regulation tomorrow, it could cause considerable difficulty for clubs that may not currently be in a position to prove the level of discipline and rigour in their finances that we would seek in a new world with more financial regulation. We have to do it at the right time and give adequate notice. That being said, we want to move at speed, and the team at DDCMS are all working on many of the aspects that the hon. Gentleman raises.

On many of the hon. Gentleman’s points, further details will be coming in the White Paper. In the next few weeks, we will also announce further details on the review of the women’s game; the game has some similar issues but many different issues, so it is right that there is a separate review. We will continue to put pressure on the Premier League and others to move forward in the many areas that the hon. Gentleman identified that do not require regulation. For example, we expect many entities to move forward in the areas of financial distribution, fan engagement and heritage assets. Football entities can continue to move those matters forward, and I am sure that the whole House will continue to bring pressure on them to do so. I thank the hon. Gentleman for his genuinely constructive comments and welcome the overall support that we are hearing from the Opposition.