London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Bill

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Thursday 28th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I am allowing a bit of latitude and I hope that Members will still remember to refer to the Bill. I recognise that it is important to raise constituency interests and I will keep allowing this latitude.

[Gloria De Piero (Ashfield) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Earlier today, the Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, the hon. Member for Wantage (Mr Vaizey) told the House that spending on the Government art collection would be frozen for the next two years. However, in a written answer given to me by the same Minister I was told that spending on new works of art for the Government collection would total £298,000 for the next two years. Could you arrange for the Minister to come back to the House to clarify what the true position is?

[Mr Deputy Speaker]

It is not a matter for the Chair to do that. The hon. Lady has rightly put this on the record and I am sure that the Government will have taken her comments on board. If clarification is needed, I am sure it will be forthcoming. I now call Mr Don Foster.

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[Hugh Robertson]

I am going to take this only so far, as this has been a consensual debate thus far and I do not want change that. I am absolutely prepared to take criticism from the hon. Lady about this if she will tell me what she would have cut from the sports budget had that not been done.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I have allowed latitude but I do not want us to get into a political row. This has been a good debate so far and I am sure that the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson) will think about how her speech is going to continue.

[Mrs Hodgson]

I did not intend to expand on that point, but if I had responded, without your intervention, Mr Deputy Speaker, it would have been only to say that such decisions were above my pay grade.

I want to place on record my praise for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games and the Olympic Delivery Authority for the excellent way in which the preparations for the games are coming together. It would also be remiss of me not to congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Tessa Jowell) again on the integral role that she has played in securing the games. The fact that we have them here in the UK in the first place is one of her greatest achievements. We talk about legacies, and that is her legacy to the country from her time as the Olympics Minister.

As we have heard, this week saw the close of the application process for the tickets. I had planned to apply for tickets but then decided that I would wait and test out the resale forum that the right hon. Member for Bath was just asking for more details about. I am interested in seeing how that works, and hon. Members might be aware why I am so interested in that issue. I believe that that mechanism could be rolled out to tackle ticket touting across the board for all major sporting, cultural and live entertainment events, as I suggested on Second Reading of my Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill. I am sure that the Minister and other hon. Members will not be surprised that it is on the subject of ticket touting, and therefore clause 3 of the Bill, that I wish to concentrate my comments today.

I agree wholeheartedly with the provision to increase the fine for those prosecuted under section 31 of the 2006 Act. I know from my own meetings with officers from Operation Podium that touts caused serious problems at the Beijing games, and it is absolutely right that the Government and the police should do everything within their power to ensure that the same does not happen here. As I told the House on Second Reading of my Bill in January, those officers from Operation Podium told me, when I met them to discuss my Bill, that a fine of £5,000 would be seen as an occupational hazard by the real hard core of touts, particularly as it is possible to make that much profit or more on a single ticket to one of the premium sessions, such as the opening or closing ceremony.

The right hon. Member for Bath has mentioned Wimbledon, which happens every year but for which debenture tickets have been known to sell at mark-ups of £10,000 each. The Olympics takes place every four years, but it is not in the UK every four years or even every 40 years, so for many of our constituents, even the relatively well-off ones, being able to go to them is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It would therefore be no surprise whatever to see tickets going at astronomical mark-ups. That prompts the question that my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham (Lyn Brown) asked—whether even a £20,000 fine would be seen as nothing more than an inconvenience to some of the hardcore, criminal, organised touts. However, I understand that Ministers have to draw the line somewhere, and I am fairly confident that £20,000 is sufficient to deter the touts at the bottom of the pyramid—the kind of chancers who might ordinarily get half a dozen tickets to a gig to sell on. I hope that when big operators are caught, the prosecution will assess the offence as a lifestyle crime and claw back more substantial amounts of money by using the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Perhaps the Minister can clarify that issue in his closing remarks.

The next key part of the drive to stamp out touts from the Olympics is to remove their market as far as possible. By that I mean making sure the public know that tickets they buy from anywhere other than the official website—and, from next year, I believe, the official resale or exchange forum—have been sold to them illegally. For many, although not all, this will serve to change their attitude to buying from a tout. Of course, the task of changing attitudes might be difficult, because touting for almost every other form of live entertainment, as we heard in response to the right hon. Member for Bath, is still allowed and condoned by this Government—as it was, it must be said, by the previous Government. Indeed, some Opposition Members came along to the Second Reading of my private Member’s Bill to say that they thought ticket touting was a classic case of the free market in action and that touts were nothing more than entrepreneurs. It is good to know that the spirit of Baroness Thatcher is still unashamedly alive on the Tory Back Benches, but it makes one wonder whether the Minister might have a small Back-Bench rebellion on his hands today.

However, I notice that some of my main adversaries during the debate on my private Member’s Bill are not present today. Perhaps the Minister has already neutered their free-market tendencies—I hope that they are recovering well. Presumably, they might say that Olympic tickets are indistinct from tickets to a 200-capacity U2 gig, and are an asset to be traded like any other. Either way, I am pleased that the amendment is being made today and that touting’s parasitical nature and criminality are being taken seriously by both the police and the Minister.

During the course of the conversations that the Secretary of State and his ministerial colleagues will have had with police and officers on the inclusion of clause 3 in this Bill, I hope that they will have been sufficiently convinced of the egregious nature of ticket touting to engage with me now and look for ways of ensuring that fans of other sporting and live entertainment events will enjoy similar protection. After all, Ministers must have been very convinced by the evidence presented to them, as we have already heard.

A Home Office press notice on 10 March stated, in a direct quote from the Home Secretary:

“The focus of the government and everyone involved is to deliver a safe and secure Olympic and Paralympic Games that London, the UK and the world can enjoy. It will not be spoiled by ticket touts.”

That is great, and I could not agree more. Allowing touting, either by not legislating or by not enforcing that legislation, would be hugely detrimental to ordinary fans who want to get along to the games. We know that because we can see how detrimental it is every night of the week in towns and cities up and down the country to fans who want to go to gigs, matches, festivals and shows.

In the Home Office press release, Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, the national Olympic security co-ordinator, stated:

“We do not want our Games blighted by touts....Touts are part of organised criminal networks, often involved in other crimes, and we are committed to dismantling them layer by layer.”

The Minister intervened on the right hon. Member for Bath to say that that relates in particular to the Olympic games, but I have been presented with evidence showing that those criminal networks are not only set up to take advantage of the Olympic games, but that they already exist and are taking advantage every time a bout of tickets goes on sale.

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[Rushanara Ali]

I thank the Minister for that response, but he should consider visiting my constituency and some of the organisations that will be affected by the cuts. As I was saying, one of the organisations—[Interruption.] If the Minister will let me, I will finish my sentence. One of the organisations that I visited recently, which is engaged in preparing young people to be volunteers, is losing funding and will struggle to get people into those opportunities. There are many other examples of funding cuts that are affecting young people. Perhaps the Minister can reassure me that funding will not be cut—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I am going to help reassure the hon. Lady. We are dealing with the Bill and I have allowed a lot of latitude for Members to stray off it. However, we should not be scoring political points when dealing with the Bill. By all means, the hon. Lady may mention her constituency and the benefits of the Olympics, but I will not allow this to stray into a political row that has nothing to do with the debate.

[Rushanara Ali]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I hope that I will not stray beyond the Bill, but I would like to turn to the subject of employment.

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[Mr Deputy Speaker]

Order. I am sure that the Minister is going to wait, and that if he wishes to intervene, he will do so in the correct way.

[Rushanara Ali]

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker.

There is great concern in my constituency about the need to ensure that the opportunities that will be offered as a result of the Olympics, such as the 100,000 job and volunteering opportunities, can be taken up by local people. Although that is not specifically related to the Bill, it is important to those of us who represent constituencies in the east end of London that local people, particularly young people, can receive such benefits, especially given the current unemployment situation. I hope that more effort will be made to encourage and support young people and others to get into those jobs.

I turn to policing and enforcement, on which I welcome many of the clauses in the Bill. In the face of the resource constraints on local police services, can the Minister assure us that there will not be additional pressure on the police in constituencies such as mine, and that every effort will be made to ensure that they are properly supported?

May I also ask the Minister for clarification of the level of input and support that might be required from local authorities such as Tower Hamlets in the logistical and preparatory work, including on policing, alongside the work that will be done by the ODA? That is particularly significant for my constituency, because the local authority is facing major cuts—some £72 million over the next four years. I hope that the Bill will not mean any hidden costs for host boroughs, but I know that there are concerns about how the costs will be met.

I reiterate the point that other Members have made about ticket touting by welcoming the suggestions in the Bill to do with penalties. All possible measures should be exhausted to ensure that those who are involved in organised crime and seek to exploit local people are properly fined and punished.

I turn to the subject of traffic regulations. People in my constituency understandably feel let down and disappointed by the changing of the Olympic marathon route away from the east end areas of Tower Hamlets and Poplar and Limehouse. Despite that change, local people will still experience some of the disruption associated with the games during the weeks when they are taking place, and I hope that their sentiments are recognised. I have had hundreds of letters from constituents, particularly young people, who feel that the change was a betrayal of the original commitments, and it is right that that sentiment is recorded today.

Tower Hamlets is the only host borough that will not be hosting any of the games. It is a source of great pride that the other host boroughs will host events, but there is a great deal of disappointment in Tower Hamlets. I hope that the Minister will take on board the need for every effort to be made to ensure that people in constituencies such as mine are engaged in the games and have the opportunity to take part in other ways. The marathon was going to be a free event available to people in one of the poorest boroughs in the country. I hope the Minister takes that on board.

As other hon. Members have cited their local newspapers, I ought to do the same to keep in tradition. The East London Advertiser, one of the great east end papers, which recently had to move from my constituency, ran a spirited campaign, working with local young people, London Citizens and TELCO—the East London Community Organisation—to try to get LOCOG to change its mind. Unfortunately, the campaign was unsuccessful, but local people might have an opportunity to organise and hold an alternative community marathon so that they can be involved. I hope we can rely on support for that from the Minister and from LOCOG if that goes ahead.

LOCOG has responded by welcoming that campaign and by trying to create other opportunities for the area by way of early access to job vacancies and so on. However, unfortunately, those initiatives fall short, and I hope the Minister takes on board some of those points so that we can have a proper legacy and make the most of the Olympics. Showcasing Brick lane and business opportunities are welcome, but as many young people have pointed out, there is more to the east end and Tower Hamlets than curry houses.