Football Governance Bill [HL]

Lord Pannick Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 11th March 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pannick (CB)]

My Lords, I welcome Amendment 18, because it addresses in a very clear manner one of the main concerns which was expressed across the House in Committee. The concern was that the new regulator should operate with a light touch. I entirely accept what the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, said that it is not a phrase that is used in legislation, but we all know what it means—apart from the noble Lord, Lord Addington, and I will come back to the noble Lord in a moment.

The concern that was expressed repeatedly in Committee was that the regulator is operating in the context of a highly successful business that brings billions of pounds of revenue into this country every year and provides enormous amounts of pleasure and excitement to billions of people across the world—although the pleasure is not experienced at the Emirates Stadium if you are watching Arsenal on every occasion you attend a home match. Furthermore, in recent months this Government have expressed in other contexts a concern that regulators should not be a barrier to growth. There is, then, a vital need to put in this Bill a clause that requires the regulator to have regard to the need to exercise the very extensive powers that have been conferred only if it is really necessary to do so.

I mentioned the noble Lord, Lord Addington, because earlier this afternoon, in an earlier group, he expressed concern about light-touch regulation. He asked whether it really means “being asleep at the wheel”—that was his phrase—or acting only when a disaster occurs. I do not understand light-touch regulation to mean anything of the sort. It means, in the present context of a highly successful industry, being aware of the equal or greater danger of overregulation which could damage this very successful industry. There is—to use a sporting metaphor, which I hope is appropriate—a real danger of own goals by the regulator wherever it comes on to the field of play.

The Minister was sympathetic to this concern in Committee, and she undertook to go away with her officials to consider this important point. I am genuinely grateful to her and the Bill team for the amount of time they have spent discussing this issue with me and other Lords. I am very pleased that she has tabled Amendment 18, which adds this new regulatory principle to Clause 8. Under the amendment, a priority would be given in the Bill so that the regulator must

“have regard to whether the requirement or restriction is necessary and whether a similar outcome could be achieved by less burdensome means”.

Amendment 18 will make a considerable improvement to the Bill. I am very grateful to the Government for having listened and acted on this important topic.

The Minister today confirmed that the purpose of Amendment 18 is to clarify the intention for this regulatory regime. There are different views about that across the House, but she has clarified that the purpose of the amendment is to ensure that the regime will be implemented and exercised with a light touch. I think that we all understand what that means, even though, as the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, said, it is not appropriate or necessary to include that phrase in the Bill.

In the light of what the Government have brought forward and what the Minister has said, I do not intend to press my Amendment 19—although I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Birt, and the noble Baroness, Lady Brady, for adding their support to it.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

The issue is whether there would automatically be a “state of the game” report simply because of a request to trigger the process. Once a “state of the game” report is in existence, it may or may not be necessary for it to be updated if somebody triggers the process. In our view, the automatic triggering of an updating of the “state of the game” report is disproportionate. There would already be a report in place. We absolutely intend for a “state of the game” report to be in place before an initial process is triggered. Clearly, it would have to be written within the relevant timeframe in the legislation.

[Lord Pannick (CB)]

May I suggest to the Minister that five years is an awfully long time between “state of the game” reports? That may be the defect here. The game can and does change immeasurably within a period of five years. Perhaps the Bill team and the Minister could consider, when the Bill goes to the other place, whether it might be more appropriate to have a more regular update on the “state of the game” report, perhaps every three years.

[Baroness Twycross (Lab)]

I will take that point away and return to this issue with noble Lords. My view is that it does not necessarily need to be more frequent, but we can discuss that further.