Unauthorised Entry to Football Matches Bill

Lord Addington Excerpts

Friday 24th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, this is a Bill where there is no real argument against what it is doing. The fact you are attempting to get into a ground should be an offence; I believe that was raised in another place. Do we want it? Yes, because the attempt is where the disorder occurs. It is where other offences start and are liable to happen. So, yes, it should be there, and a banning order is probably an appropriate response along with a fine.

However, even those with greater expertise than me in this field have said that it is all about the enforcement. It may not be that this Bill is designed to cover that; it is understandable that it is not. To get it on the statute book is probably the first step. As has been mentioned, if you get your intelligence wrong or do not have the will to back it up, no piece of legislation means anything; there are lots of pieces of defunct legislation hanging around. You must follow it up. Indeed, the genesis of the disorder at the 2021 European finals was—I raised this in the House—a breakdown of intelligence and people not putting sufficient resources in to deal with the problem. Social media was mentioned; it became known that we were still spacing and there must be extra capacity in the stadium, so people went. We have to look at this in the round and make sure we back it up.

I do not think this Bill is somewhere we can correct everything. However, as the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, said, we can start to discuss details. Hopefully, the Minister, when we come to the details, will give us a better idea of the Government’s understanding and what we are going to do to go forward. That would be an appropriate use of Committee on this Bill. I am not sure whether amending it would help or hinder. I suspect that there is only so much time, even in a Session which seems to be as elastic as this one, to get something through. I would look forward to at least discussing that.

Once again, what this Bill says is good. The enforcement capacity—the gathering of intelligence and the will to act—is the elephant in the room. It is the elephant which has now been discussed, talked about and put a howdah on in this debate. We have to make sure we do that. We have to use everything that goes with it because, if you do not do that, it will become meaningless. There are also issues of facial recognition and subsequently identifying people who have broken the law. All of this stuff is probably there, but I do not know if it comes into the Bill or could be in it.

The noble Lord, Lord Brennan, when he replies, can let us know what the timeframe is, as indeed can the Minister. We will see what we can do then. I think this is good, but it is certainly not the whole story. There are certainly things the Government can do to make sure that this is more effective and that the policing of football is done more effectively. I wish this measure well.