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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of the effect on the capacity at football stadia of the introduction of safe standing areas.

Spectator safety at sports grounds remains the priority for Government. The Sports Grounds Safety Authority is the regulatory body responsible for overseeing and advising on safety at sports grounds. My officials meet and receive advice from the SGSA as part of the normal process of policy development.

The Government will continue to learn from the latest data, research, and advances in technology to improve the safety of spectators, but we have yet to see robust evidence of a safer approach to protecting spectators at football matches than the existing all-seater arrangements.