Football Governance Bill [HL]
Debate between Lord Scriven and Lord PannickWednesday 18th December 2024
(4 weeks ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Football Governance Bill [HL] 2024-26 View all Football Governance Bill [HL] 2024-26 Debates Read Hansard Text Amendment Paper: HL Bill 41-VI(a) Amendments for Committee (Supplementary to the Sixth Marshalled List) - (17 Dec 2024)
Lord Pannick (CB)
My Lords, I think a very strong case has been made this afternoon by the noble Lords, Lord Bassam and Lord Scriven, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and my noble friend Lady Grey-Thompson to require the regulator to assess whether a prospective owner of a football club respects and promotes the protection of human rights and prevents modern slavery.
I am very sympathetic to the principle. I am just concerned about the practicality. Is it really practical to expect that the regulator is going to have the expertise, time or ability to conduct a general assessment of whether a particular person—who may, for all I know, be based abroad—is generally respecting human rights and preventing modern slavery? This is going to take an enormous amount of time and money, and I fear that it would distract the regulator from the more day-to-day, prosaic functions that Parliament will be asking it to perform. I would be pleased to hear from the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, how this is going to work in practice, because I am very sceptical.
Lord Scriven (LD)
Does the noble Lord accept that it already takes place for certain individuals and entities with regard to the regulations that I pointed out, and that the Government already have a system in place to do this for takeovers? The issue is that there are gaps, which is why it needs to be in this Bill, particularly around football and state entities.
Lord Pannick (CB)
I entirely accept that there are detailed regulations, in particular in relation to money laundering, but that is a far more specific area, where there is a government system and a whole army of people with expertise to assess those matters. The question is whether we wish to make it a function of the independent football regulator to have a whole department that is concerned with this. I see the force of the principle, but I remain sceptical about it in practice.