Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has discussed with the Football Association the introduction of a fit-and-proper-person test for owners of non-league football clubs.

The Owners and Directors Test, formerly the fit and Proper Persons Test, is already applied to National League clubs at Steps 1 to 4. The FA are also in the process of introducing a licensing system for those clubs from 2016–17, which will ensure clubs can only compete if they meet a set of legal, ownership, integrity, stadia, insolvency and sustainability criteria.

Any plans for a licensing system or the Owners and Directors Test to be introduced to non-league sides further down the football pyramid are a matter for the FA.