Birmingham Commonwealth Games Bill [HL]

Lord Moynihan Excerpts

Tuesday 25th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Moynihan (Con)]

My Lords, under the impressive leadership of president Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee has added human rights protections, anti-corruption and sustainable development standards to host city contracts, aligning the IOC with UN guiding principles on business and human rights. The French Government are collaborating with the trade unions and employer federations to introduce a charter for Paris 2024.

Through the work that the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, myself and others are undertaking through the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sport, Modern Slavery and Human Rights—for which I declare an interest as vice-chairman—I hope that together we can ensure that the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham can use the IOC guidelines as clear, practical steps necessary to document a mega sporting event charter which can have a lasting legacy for future Commonwealth and Olympic Games. I define a “mega sporting event” as one which requires primary legislative support.

CWG can set standards for not only 2022 but beyond and the organising committee, under the leadership of Ian Reid is already meeting the objectives set out by the IOC. Its contents should include the many rights which need to be protected throughout the life cycle of a mega sporting event and the key practices which should be embedded at each phase, from vision, concept and legacy through bidding, planning and design, income generation, sustainable sourcing, construction, delivery and operations, completion and legacy.

After all is said and done, the Bill is in fact a request to restrict these everyday rights for local communities, individuals and businesses for the duration of the Games in order to ensure their successful and smooth running. That request, enshrined in this legislation, is necessary and deserving of the support of your Lordships, but should be granted only after detailed scrutiny of the consequences. We saw in London how delicate this balance of rights and responsibilities can be. The Committee stage will allow us the opportunity to explore this further, to the benefit of the rights of all parties involved in Birmingham, not least the athletes, and the success of the Games.

My second observation is that there are a number of key issues regarding parliamentary scrutiny to be analysed in Committee. As we meet, I am drawing to the end of my time on the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee—I declare my interest there—and so today I speak in a personal capacity and not as a member of the committee, which has yet to meet to deliberate on this Bill. However, I draw the attention of the House to four key parts of the Bill which I believe move away from best practice as set out in the London Olympics Acts.

The first relates to Clause 12, which covers regulations concerning advertising in Games locations. On occasions this was perceived to be a heavy weapon in the hands of the London organising committee. This Bill makes it an offence for a person to carry out Games location advertising. The expression “Games location advertising” is defined to meet the doing of something,

“in, or in the vicinity of, a specified Games location at any time during a specified period”.

The “specified” here is subject to the regulations made by the Secretary of State. “In the vicinity of” a Games location has no precise meaning. Here again it will be for the Secretary of State to clarify this in regulations for particular cases.

All the regulations in this clause are subject to the negative resolution procedure, yet these issues were considered of such importance during the London Games that the affirmative procedure applied in respect of the equivalent advertising regulations made under the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006. Given the width of the powers and the breadth of scope, and the significant impact that the exercise of the powers is liable to have—for example, prohibiting by means of a criminal offence a wide range of advertising in the affected areas; it covers all advertising, such as fliers for plumbers put through doors—I believe that it should be for this House to consider in greater detail any exercise of powers and therefore that they should be subject to the affirmative procedure. Regulations concerning trading in Games locations, set out in Clause 15, lead me to a similar conclusion.

Thirdly, Clause 24 confers a power on the Secretary of State to direct a person to prepare a Games transport plan. The provisions in Clauses 24 to 26 broadly replicate transport provisions contained in the London Olympics Act and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Act. However, in London and Glasgow it was for named entities: the Olympic Delivery Authority and the organising committee of the 2008 Commonwealth Games. I await with interest to learn from the Minister why it is not possible for the name of the body responsible to be explicit on the face of the legislation for these Commonwealth Games, given the far-reaching impact that this legislation confers on the body responsible.

Finally, under paragraph 16 of Schedule 2 we reach the issue of compensation for damage to property—a particularly important matter for local communities. We have heard about the importance that should be attached to local communities. The Government justify the scope of the powers and, again, the use of the negative procedure on the basis that the regulations deal with matters of procedural detail. However, it is clear that the regulations go much further than procedural detail. They include the power to determine which body or person is to have the function of determining claims for compensation and whether there is to be a right of review or appeal. As with the London Games legislation, given the width of scope and the fact that they affect the determination of the rights of individuals in the vicinity of the Games, I believe that the affirmative procedure should be adopted.

I move to some brief reflections on what is not in the Bill. In so doing, I declare my interests as the chairman of the British Olympic Association during the London Olympic Games and as a member of the London organising committee under the excellent chairmanship of my noble friend Lord Coe.

The Games have the potential to shine a spotlight on the city of Birmingham and on the country at large. Just as the whole country effectively became an Olympic village during the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, so the same must be the goal for everyone involved with CG 2022 in Birmingham. However, these Games—as great a festival of sport as I am sure they will be—form only half the story. As the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, emphasised, the tougher assignment for all concerned is the legacy: sporting and in the form of urban regeneration; an economic boost, not a white elephant cost; and the importance of raising the bar for the communities that will volunteer, be enthused and live with the abiding memories of a great sporting event well beyond the Games.

That is all the more important when we pause to reflect that the level of participation in sport in this country is at an all-time low. This is the least active generation ever. Proactive measures are required by government—measures to promote active lifestyles, to tackle growing obesity and to respond to the growing incidence of mental health issues among the young. Too many young people are deprived of the opportunity to use the language and participation of sport as a means to communicate in society and to find a way to escape the escalator to crime. In the independent sector of education, prospectuses are frequently replete with quality sports facilities. At inner-city state schools, the costs of insurance, the challenges associated with travel to sports grounds and the low priority given to sport and recreation lead literally thousands of inner-city primary and secondary schools to be deprived of sporting opportunities for their pupils, to the detriment of the children and society together. Bringing the Games to Birmingham can be a catalyst to change this spiral of decline.

I will briefly mention the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria. He deserves our thanks for all the work he has done with Yuvraj Raninder Singh of Patiala, president of the National Rifle Association of India and vice-president of the International Shooting Sport Federation. Both have worked hard to seek to ensure that shooting at Bisley was one of the sports on the 2020 CWG programme. Their ability to identify financial support to the value of nearly £800,000 left little financial contribution necessary for the Games committee. While I am very supportive of the decision to include women’s cricket, beach volleyball and para table tennis, I hope, as a strong supporter of shooting, that my noble friend the Minister will give us his views on the decision not to include shooting in the programme.

A number of issues covered in the proposed legislation can be strengthened with the characteristic all-party support that exists on sport. I have long campaigned through the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse, on which I declare an interest as co-chair. If we can legislate a blanket ban with criminal sanctions against modern-day touting and associated crime at CWG 2022, surely we can add a schedule covering other major events where the public deserve the same protection against unscrupulous abuse in the secondary ticket market.

Committee stage will provide us with this opportunity as it will allow us to focus on the governance of sport at the Commonwealth Games 2022. It will allow us to focus on the steps taken by the Government and the Games organisers together to: ensure access for disabled people to all the facilities; promote sport for the disabled; protect the facilities to ensure a lasting legacy to the local communities; provide for the prevention of match-fixing, bribery and corruption; provide clear, unequivocal anti-doping provisions; ensure visa and immigration rules; allow for the ability of athletes under the age of 18 to enter legally binding contracts; introduce a sporting event betting licence, and a right for the Commonwealth Games as a precedent; and look at these critical governance issues in the context of a potential post-Brexit Britain.

I welcome this Bill, which will stimulate much-needed debate. I look forward to working in Committee to find ways to strengthen the Bill and, through it, send a signal not just to Birmingham but to the rest of the county and future holders of mega sporting events that we can build on the success of Birmingham 2022 and establish a modern framework for the role of Governments in mega sporting events around the world.