Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the (a) Independent Football Regulator and (b) Football Association on the conduct of (i) Manchester City and (ii) Chelsea.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Independent Football Regulator has a tightly defined scope focusing on the financial sustainability of clubs, the systemic stability of the football pyramid and protecting club heritage. Football ticket price caps are commercial decisions and a matter for football clubs.
However, fan consultation is a key part of the licensing regime within the Football Governance Act and the Regulator will require clubs to consult fans on a range of specified relevant matters, including ticket pricing.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the independent football regulator on engagement with supporters’ groups on away-ticket pricing.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Independent Football Regulator has a tightly defined scope focusing on the financial sustainability of clubs, the systemic stability of the football pyramid and protecting club heritage. Football ticket price caps are commercial decisions and a matter for football clubs.
However, fan consultation is a key part of the licensing regime within the Football Governance Act and the Regulator will require clubs to consult fans on a range of specified relevant matters, including ticket pricing.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how much funding his Department allocated to football clubs through the levelling up funds in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Crusaders Football Club, in Belfast was awarded £2.2 million from the Levelling Up Fund for its Shore Road Skills Centre project.
This is the only direct allocation of Levelling Up Funds to a football club in Northern Ireland.
Other football clubs in Northern Ireland may have benefited from funding delivered and administered by local authorities.
Asked by: Calum Miller (Liberal Democrat - Bicester and Woodstock)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his timetable is for reaching a decision on the planning application made by Oxford United Football Club to build a new stadium at the Triangle, south of Kidlington.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
A decision not to call in the planning application for a new Oxford United stadium was issued on 15 October. The application therefore remains with Cherwell District Council for determination.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of ticket price limits on the sustainability of football in England.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Football ticket price limits are commercial decisions and a matter for football clubs.
The Independent Football Regulator will consider the pertinent factors to club sustainability as part of its first State of the Game report. This report must be completed within 18 months of the Secretary of State laying secondary legislation specificing the competitions in scope of the regime.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Independent Football Regulator on (a) the regulation of away ticket prices and (b) the potential impacts of regulating away ticket pricing.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Football ticket price limits are commercial decisions and a matter for football clubs.
The Independent Football Regulator will consider the pertinent factors to club sustainability as part of its first State of the Game report. This report must be completed within 18 months of the Secretary of State laying secondary legislation specificing the competitions in scope of the regime.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to improve funding for grassroots football facilities.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is determined to ensure that everyone has access to quality sport and physical activity opportunities. That’s why the Government is investing £98 million throughout 2025/26 to build and upgrade pitches and facilities UK wide. Funding from the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme is invested in England through Sport England and our delivery partner, the Football Foundation. The Football Foundation plans their investment pipeline based on Local Football Facility Plans which have been developed in partnership with local authorities, community FAs and other sport stakeholders.
On top of this, we have committed another £400 million to transform facilities across the whole of the UK over the next four years.
The Government provides the majority of funding for grassroots sports and health club facilities in England, through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England, which annually invests over £250 million in Exchequer and Lottery funding in areas of greatest need to tackle inactivity levels through community-led solutions.
We are working closely with sporting bodies and local leaders to establish what communities need, and will then set out further plans on how future funding will be allocated across the UK.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made provision for the ability of the Independent Football Regulator to require an owner to divest from a club to be subject to (a) Ministerial oversight and (b) parliamentary scrutiny.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Football Governance Act establishes an operationally independent regulator. The Act does not provide for any ongoing ministerial or parliamentary role in the IFR’s ownership tests. This is to stop undue political interference in football.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Independent Football Regulator’s ownership rules on (a) smaller and (b) community-owned football clubs.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the different levels of resources and the different ownership models of smaller and community-owned football clubs. That is why the Football Governance Act has designed the owners’ and directors’ tests to be applied by the Independent Football Regulator in a proportionate way in line with its regulatory principles. For example, the Regulator will recognise that an owner’s financial plans and resources required for a smaller club will understandably be very different to that of a Premier League club.
The Act also accounts for community-owned football clubs in its definition of an owner, ensuring that the tests will be applied appropriately.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Criminals to face football, travel, club and pub bans, published on 23 August 2025, what impact her Department estimates these measures will have on (a) rates of first offence and (b) rates of reoffence.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Through the Sentencing Bill we will introduce new powers available to the courts when imposing a community or suspended sentence. This will provide courts with greater flexibility than ever before to tailor punishments to offenders and ensure sentences served in the community are not a “soft option” but represent a genuine punishment by restricting offenders’ freedoms.
The four new powers which this Bill includes are:
Banning offenders from attending public events (including sports events);
Banning offenders from attending drinking establishments (including pubs, clubs and bars);
Prohibiting offenders from driving, and
Requiring an offender to stay within a geographic location (restriction zones).
We believe that these new powers, for example banning criminals from football matches and pubs, will help to deter offending and hammer home that under this Government, crime no longer pays.
The Sentencing Bill seeks to increase the robustness of community sentencing. Evidence suggests that community orders and suspended sentences are more effective than short custodial sentences at reducing reoffending in certain circumstances.