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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether a mechanism is in place to allow a football club that has introduced a safe standing area to retain that area if it is promoted to the top two tiers of English football.

The government’s all-seater stadium policy precludes the use of standing accommodation at clubs in the top two tiers of English football.

Spectator safety at sports grounds remains the priority for Government. The Sports Grounds Safety Authority (SGSA) is the regulatory body responsible for overseeing and advising on safety at sports grounds.

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.