Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Bill

Debate between Lord Stevenson of Balmacara and Baroness Grey-Thompson

Tuesday 14th January 2014 Grand Committee

[Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB)]

My Lords, I must apologise for not being present at Second Reading but I am not an expert in gambling, although I visited a casino once. As ever, it is a joy to be here today in your Lordships’ House; it truly is an education. I congratulate the noble Baroness on tabling the amendment because of how it refers to sport. She has put forward a very strong case for what needs to be done in this area so I will not repeat it, and of course I defer to the extensive experience of the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, in this area.

The area that I would like to pick up on is around the sharing of information, which is vital. Every time we see a story in the press about match fixing or dishonourable behaviour, it affects the wider public perception of sport and raises further doubts and gossip. Ultimately, it affects how parents think about that sport and how they encourage their children to be involved in it, and how people engage in that sport. It does a great disservice to the wonderful parts of sport that we all know. I think that national governing bodies and international bodies would welcome all the support and help that they can receive, not just to tackle ongoing cases but to put measures in place for the future. Governing bodies cannot always be two steps behind, as they are now. With drug-testing in sport, much more information is shared and we are able to look at it intelligently, to track patterns and see how we tackle it. This is such an important issue that I hope that the noble Baroness continues to press it at further stages of the Bill.

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara]

My Lords, this is one of the most important of the amendments that we are discussing today, and it has been good, but short, debate. At the heart of it is the concept of what sport is and how we regard it. It is clear that it has to be fair competition; it has to be between participants who are playing under the same and agreed rules; and it is vital that all participants are competing to win and not following some agenda and that the officials are honest and are seen to be so. Therefore, there are a number of very important moving parts in any event like this. Sport is important also, as has been said, because it seems to be part of our culture, particularly in Britain. It is important for how we stand in the world and how we operate that our sports should be run effectively and are above reproach and suspicion.

If that is to be the case, it falls to the governing bodies—the international bodies, as we heard from the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan—to police what is happening and to make sure that conduct is appropriate. This Bill is remote from that, because those governing bodies have an unavoidable duty and should be held to task for it. However, the growth in the number of betting services has meant that there is a surrogate way of checking out what is happening on the ground. Where strange events in betting are happening, which are often seen, and when there are strange outcomes that can perhaps be looked at in retrospect, it is important that they are properly investigated and any criminality or other bad behaviour taken account of.

We need to make sure—and this is the point of the amendments—that the structures of regulation match the aspirations that we have for our sport and for those who operate within it. It may well be true that match fixing is not the most important threat facing sport—it was suggested that it is drugs—but the points made by Jacques Rogge and the International Olympic Committee are important in this context. In response to that, the DCMS set up its own review, the Rick Parry review of sports betting integrity, which suggested that a specific risk was posed to sports integrity as a result of the current licensing regime. If that is the case—and the Minister must speak his feelings about it—surely the present situation does not match up to the aspirations that we have for our sport. To split responsibilities for spread betting from those of the Gambling Commission is clearly going to lead to trouble. It is interesting that the three amendments in this group give a range of options, a pick-and-mix, as to how to do it. One could leave things as they are, with two bodies responsible, but it would then be necessary for the Government to ensure that arrangements for reporting—as picked up by the noble Baroness—were exactly the same, so that both the Gambling Commission and the FCA could ensure that irregular patterns were reported to the authorities as quickly as possible. That would be one approach.

The second approach would be to make the Gambling Commission fully responsible for all aspects of gambling activity, which would have a clarity that is lacking in the present arrangements. In that way, licence condition 15.1, which is generally accepted to be very good, could be applied to all areas. In that situation—and this is the third option—you could keep the general responsibilities for spread betting within the FCA, but licence condition 15.1 in relation to gambling operations would have effect within that. There are therefore three options for the Minister to consider. It is important that we get some clarity on this. If we cannot get some movement, we will need to come back to the matter on Report and at later stages.

Could the Minister respond also on the question of whether we have sufficient legal power to deal with match fixing? There is some concern that the UK does not have a specific law to deal with the offence of cheating or match fixing in sport. The current arrangements, set out in the Gambling Act 2005, were deficient in relation to the recent case of the Pakistani bowlers; I defer to the noble Baroness, who is nodding vigorously, so it seems I am correct on this. It seems perverse to have had this piece of legislation in place and yet to have discovered that the way in which they were eventually prosecuted was through the Fraud Act, not the Gambling Act. This was clearly an offence in terms of match fixing. If we do not have sufficiency in legislation, could we not take this opportunity to bring ourselves up to date?

There has been a core reaction here by the European Parliament, with its action plan on organised crime, corruption and money-laundering, which recommends that member states should make sports rigging a criminal offence in order to strengthen the fight against illegal sports betting. I hope that the Minister will consider that.

London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Bill

Debate between Lord Stevenson of Balmacara and Baroness Grey-Thompson

Tuesday 25th October 2011 Grand Committee

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara]

My Lords, the traffic management provisions in the original Act cover the Olympic route network and the areas around Games venues. As we heard at Second Reading from the distinguished Olympian the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, who was there, the power was introduced because of the traffic chaos at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Clearly, we do not want competitors missing their events and officials failing to turn up at the right time because London is gridlocked. However, these provisions in the Bill caused the most discussion in the other place. The amendment gives us the opportunity to scrutinise carefully what is proposed to ensure that the balance is right.

My attention has been drawn to a recent article in the Evening Standard that alleges that Olympic ticket-holders using public transport will spend up to five times longer getting to events than those travelling on the ORN. It suggests that it will take two and a half hours to get to the Olympic park from central London. On the other hand, the same distance will be covered in 30 minutes by athletes, media, officials, sponsors and VIPs who are allowed to use what has been branded by the media the “Olympic Zil lanes”.

In another article in the same paper, the broadcaster James May attacked the elitist use of the ORN. He said:

“If it's the athletes OK, because they have to be at a peak state of readiness … But if it's the chairman of Coca Cola or Barclays then they should either bloody well run there or go on a bicycle”.

Those are strong words and possibly unparliamentary—I apologise if they are—but there is a potential PR disaster here. There is a great deal to be said for minimising the number of people who will use the Olympic lanes, and to make a reality of the rhetoric that these are truly public transport games. Yet there is a sense of two classes of travellers to the Olympic park—those whose journeys are hell and those who glide down the Olympic lanes—and we have to anticipate that that will quickly become a source of tension because London is that sort of city.

Would the Minister answer some questions? We know the Games are going to cause serious disruption, and we are all agreed the key to this is issuing accurate, timeous and comprehensive information about the ORN plans. Will the Minister spell out when, and with what frequency, that will start to happen? Clearly the fewer days that the ORN has to be in place the better. What consideration has been given to reducing the time for which the ORN is in place to a minimum, hence minimising the disruption for ordinary Londoners?

We have seen various reports about the proposed changes to traffic signals. There is a need to assuage the fear that this programme, however modest, will significantly increase congestion throughout the whole of London. Will the Minister advise us when the final list of road closures will be issued? Is there any opportunity for people to be consulted? Is there a right of appeal if people have good grounds to be concerned? Regarding who exactly will be able to glide down the Olympic lanes, have any efforts been made to restrict the number of such persons, and with what success? Has any progress been made with plans to use the River Thames transport system for the Games?

There is concern about pedestrian road safety and how it would be affected by crossing closures. Will the Minister advise us when the final list of those closures will be issued? Is there an opportunity for people to consult it? Is there a right of appeal if people have good grounds to be concerned, for example, about safety?

Finally, what progress has been made to allow taxis to use the Olympic road network in specified areas or at specified times? At Second Reading we understood that negotiations were continuing, but we now hear that no taxis will be allowed to use the ORN at any time, including the very small hours of the morning. Is that true and is there any chance of a more flexible approach? I beg to move.

[Baroness Grey-Thompson]

My Lords, I declare an interest. I am a board member of Transport for London. Also, as an ex-athlete, I feel slightly guilty that I have glided down Paralympic lanes in the past. The amendment would prevent the ORN and PRN coming into force unless there has been consultation with local authorities, residents and businesses that may be affected by it. I still think there is a huge amount that needs to be done to educate the public around the use of the ORN and the PRN, and I raised this at Second Reading.

I have seen personally that it is quite difficult to engage the media in issues around the ORN and the PRN, perhaps because it is not the most glamorous side of the Games in terms of spreading understanding. The aim of the ORN and the PRN is to move athletes and Games families around in a sensible manner, and we accept that London will be busy. However, I would like to raise a few points around the consultation and what the ORN and PRN are going to look like. It is important to remember that they will come into force only just before the Games begin. They will be discontinued when they are not needed, and there has been a serious attempt to minimise the number of roads used. It is 109 miles, which is, in effect, 1 per cent of London’s roads. It is also important to differentiate between the ORN and the Games lanes, which are only going to be 30 miles of London’s roads.

There has been extensive consultation with the boroughs, engaging with officials and politicians over design, implementation and the operation. Informal engagement about the detail has just come to an end and the commissioner has met with borough leaders to discuss the ORN and other Games timing issues. In terms of consultation with Londoners, half a million letters have gone out as part of an informal engagement. There have been 70 drop-in sessions run by Transport for London, and changes can be made in response. Also, all the information on the ORN and PRN is on the Transport for London website. In terms of minimising disruption, the ORN will only be operational a few days before the Games and not used between the Games, as has already been said.

There is also a lack of understanding about taxis’ use of the ORN. They are able to use the ORN but they are not able to use the Games lanes, which are vital for moving the athletes around. TFL has consulted with the London Cab Drivers Club, the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association and Unite the Union, and are including the possibility of giving them access to the same permissions as buses to turn onto the ORN and PRN. Those meetings are going to continue on a monthly basis. Finally, considering road safety has been central to the design of the ORN and PRN, there is an awareness that pedestrian crossings are of concern. Where the crossings have to close, there will be barriers with signage to the nearest safe crossing. I believe it is important that tactile paving will be covered to ensure that visually impaired people are not misguided. A great deal of work is ongoing with the London Visual Impairment Forum and local mobility groups to ensure that that consultation continues.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara]

This is a formal procedure in order to get into a discussion about the relaxation of licensing conditions that will make it easier for haulage operators to adjust to the difficulties that they may experience as a result of the Games. In response to the query from the noble Lord, Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville, I intend to mention newspaper deliveries because that seems to fit more closely with the general concerns that the Newspaper Society was expressing.

For those whose business is delivering and transporting goods and services, it is a major concern that there is going to be sustained problems during the Olympic Games, but they accept that. The difficulty is that they have not experienced the impact of the sustained duration of the Games compared with what they have to do for big, one-off events such as royal weddings, and that creates the different proposition that they are struggling with. The keys to this are more flexibility, proportionality and information. When the Minister responds, can she advise us of the final list of operating constraints and when it will be issued so that the information flow can begin? Can she give us some information about the consultations that took place on that?

Time-critical deliveries for perishable goods or newspaper deliveries, as I have mentioned, often operate with a limited time slot, so they are particularly vulnerable not only to the traffic measures that we talked about on a previous amendment, but to the need to make changes to arrangements that may impact adversely on the working conditions of the drivers and haulage operators directly affected by the changes. Can the Minister tell us what assessment of the impact of these changes, particularly in the working practices of the drivers and ancillary workers, has been carried out? Can that assessment be published?

Finally, can the Minister say what information it is proposed to issue to businesses in this area of activity, when it might be issued, how regularly it will be done and whether there will be a central point where this information is held and can be consulted? Will there be a dedicated website? Will this be a proactive process or a reactive one? In other words, will information be pushed out to businesses or will they have to find it for themselves and make what they can of what they can find? The former would certainly be more appropriate and, given the particular difficulties of the long period of disruption, it would be a gesture that would be very well received.

[Baroness Grey-Thompson]

Deleting Clause 9 would remove a provision added in the other place to permit last-minute changes to goods vehicles operator’s licences. It allows traffic commissioners temporarily to suspend or amend licence conditions regulating the hours of operation of goods vehicle operating centres without the need to carry out a consultation. The provision applies in the period leading up to, during and immediately after the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. It ensures that businesses in London can continue to receive goods deliveries in Games time and permits freight operators to rearrange deliveries to comply with Games restrictions without breaching their licence conditions.

If I thought that it was difficult to raise the media profile of the ORN, it is even more of a challenge to do so for freight deliveries. The temporary provision is necessary to ensure that freight deliveries continue to take place in central London. It might not be immediately obvious, but they are crucial to the success of the Games. Many goods vehicles licences held by freight operators include an environmental restriction that constrains hours of operation and additional night-time deliveries may be necessary. While it is important to encourage businesses to think about Games times, it has been a real challenge to encourage companies to think nine or 10 months ahead. Some companies are not in a position to do that, especially single traders or the man with a white van. That is one of the realities that we face with this.

We need to ensure that those people are not penalised. It is also important that traffic commissioners are able to deal with late requests effectively and to protect the needs of those residents who will otherwise be affected by operators breaking their licence conditions. I do not believe that it should be a permanent change, but it is necessary for Games time.