My Lords, major sporting events matter. They matter to the fans who fill our stadiums and line our streets; they matter to the athletes who train for years for the chance to compete for our country on the world’s biggest stage; they matter to our communities, our local economies and our national story; and they matter because, at their best, they bring people together in a way that few other things can. These events play a unique role in fostering a shared sense of belonging. They generate moments of collective experience that contribute directly to social cohesion and national pride, uniting diverse communities and showcasing the best of our nation on a global stage.
Hosting these events here opens the country as a whole. They serve as a powerful platform to showcase the best of the UK, from sporting prowess to arts and culture, and even the diverse food that defines British cuisine. These world-class occasions become a unique shared celebration of belonging, demonstrating that the UK’s excellence is not confined to sport but encompasses its deep and varied cultural life.
I was privileged enough to be successful in the public ballot to get tickets for a couple of events at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The excitement of my god-daughters and my niece and nephew in seeing elite sport for the first time and their pride in our country was infectious. It remains one of their strongest memories of their childhoods. The whole country embraced the Olympics. The Games lifted the mood of communities up and down the country and provided an economic boost. It remains one of the lasting legacies of my noble friend the late Baroness Jowell and the type of event we would like to see more of in the UK.
My Lords, I thank the Minister for her introduction to the Sporting Events Bill. My noble friend Lord Addington will be leading on this from our Benches and may occasionally hand me the baton. We welcome this Bill, which creates a legislative framework that will attract international sporting events to the UK, as the Minister said. It will provide the opportunity to inspire future generations of athletes, create unforgettable experiences, boost visitor numbers and the economy and exercise our soft power through sports. We on these Benches welcome and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord McConnell, on his role as ministerial adviser on soft power and major events. We look forward to working with him.
The legislative framework is useful and will assist with the organising of those events that we have already secured—the Minister mentioned Euro 2028. It will also help when bidding to host future events, but should there also be a clear bidding framework for putting together such bids, or at least a commitment to increase transparency surrounding bids? That would be a strong sign for the sports industry of more positive intentions from the Government.
This Bill can be useful not just for sporting events; I can also see it being utilised for cultural ones. The Edinburgh Festival could benefit, as well as all-year events such as the City of Culture. It is my understanding that the Government intend to set out a strategy for major events that will include culture. Can the Minister tell us the timeline for this?
My Lords, I apologise to your Lordships. I made it into the wrong end of the Chamber at the start of the debate and then sprinted around the outside, somewhat slower than I used to be able to.
I declare my interests: I am the chair of Sport Wales, a board member of UK Sport and a trustee of the Foundation of Light, and I sit on His Majesty’s Government’s Soft Power Council, particularly looking at sport. I was part of the bid team for the Manchester Olympic and Paralympic Games when we bid against Sydney. We had 100 years of rain data to show that there is more rain in Sydney at that time of year than Manchester, and they held up a picture of Bondi Beach. We learned from each of those experiences.
My noble friend in sport, the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, and I worked on much of the 2012 Games together. It is easy to forget that when we bid for those Games, we were bidding only for the Olympics; for the Paralympics there was a separate negotiation. Thanks to the amazing work of Tessa Jowell, she made that happen. On stage presenting to the IOC, she wanted to stand up and say that we were bidding for the 60 days of the Games. Unfortunately, at that time, we could not risk anything getting in the way of the IOC awarding the Games to us. Those Games raised the bar on the Olympics, the Paralympics and disability sport.
My Lords, I rise in strong support of the Bill and my noble friend’s excellent introduction to it. It is rather humbling and daunting to follow the legendary noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson. She is an inspiration to us all, in both what she did as an athlete and what she has done since, and I congratulate her on her speech.
Major global sporting events are utterly transformative —economically, socially, reputationally and inspirationally. Listen to Emil Zátopek, star of London 1948, winner of golds in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres:
“It was a liberation of spirit to be there in London. After those dark days of the war … the revival of the Olympics was as if the sun had come out”.
Sport can do this. Four years later, he won three more gold medals in Helsinki.
As a 10 year-old boy, I saw England beat Mexico on the way to winning the World Cup in 1966. The inspiration has never left me. As a pro bono member of the FA’s performance advisory group since 2016, I declare an interest: I am hoping, as I do every four years, needless to say, that we might win the World Cup again this year. I wish Scotland well as well.
The inspirational Sebastian Coe and the blessed Tessa Jowell—several other noble Lords have referred to how much we miss her—brought us London 2012. Everybody has talked about what wonderful events the Olympics and Paralympics were—Britain at its best. Even the London cab drivers stopped moaning. Since then, in football alone, we have had the Women’s Euros, which transformed the legacy of football for women and girls, as the noble Baroness mentioned just now, and the men’s Euros final. We know that the UK and Ireland will co-host the men’s Euros in 2028, and I hope that in 2035 we will host the Women’s World Cup. Last year the brilliant Women’s Rugby World Cup was here. Each such event creates a massive opportunity for our country to promote our sport, hospitality, values, health and well-being.
My Lords, although it is a pro bono position, I declare my interest as a board member of the London Marathon Foundation.
Sport, as the Government rightly recognise, has a unique power. It brings people together in a way that little else can. It inspires, unites and instils pride in our communities. When we host major sporting events, we do not just celebrate sport—we generate real economic benefit, create jobs and, as we have heard, inspire the next generation. The Bill is a step in the right direction, creating a common legislative framework that can be applied to support the successful delivery of future major sporting events. However, many in the sector regard it as a missed opportunity.
The Bill is, by design, narrowly drawn. It applies only to events that are
“of a kind that is not regularly held … in the United Kingdom”
and are
“likely to be of significant international interest”.
In practice, as we have heard, that means it is tailored to one-off international tournaments such as the Euros, the World Cup or the World Athletics Championships. Although the criteria are open to some interpretation and there are certainly questions to be asked about which other events may be included in the future, which I am sure we will discuss in Committee, what is clear—it was reiterated by the Minister in her opening—is that the current definition excludes the very events that define Britain’s global sporting identity: Wimbledon, the Open, the London Marathon and the British Grand Prix, to name but a few. As we well know, these are not occasional events. They happen year after year, and year after year they deliver precisely the benefits that Ministers rightly want to champion: economic growth, international prestige and community pride.
My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for her clear and concise introduction to this debate, and I refer the House to my golf interest as listed in the register. It is a pleasure to speak at Second Reading and to welcome the Bill. I support its central purpose: to provide the UK with a clear, consistent and credible legislative framework for hosting major international sporting events. The Bill fulfils a clear manifesto commitment to strengthen Britain’s position as a world-leading host of global sporting events and to remove unnecessary uncertainty and delay. It replaces a piecemeal approach with a toolkit that does not need rebuilding every few years. That clarity matters, and this Bill sends the right signal at home and abroad.
As my noble friend has said, major sporting events are not simply moments of entertainment or national celebration; they are economic catalysts, generators of tourism, drivers of inward investment, and powerful platforms for projecting the UK’s values and reputation on the global stage. Sport brings people together like nothing else can, fostering pride, identity and community. Anyone watching the Arsenal parade in north London at the weekend could see that vividly in action, albeit it through a thick pink haze. Sporting events can also play a crucial role in national cohesion and local regeneration. Host cities and regions experience not only immediate economic uplift but longer-term legacy effects. In that sense, major events are more than spectacle; they leave a lasting mark.
My Lords, it is a pleasure to take part in this Second Reading debate and in doing so, I declare my technology interests as set out in the register—as adviser to the Crown Estate, Endava, and Simmons & Simmons.
I congratulate the Minister on the way she introduced the Bill. In its title we already have part of recent sporting heritage. If we always refer to the Sporting Events Bill by its acronym, “SEB”, that will give the right salute and respect to our colleague Lord Coe, who did so much in leading the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
I will focus on inclusion and innovation, which, sadly, the Bill is largely silent on, yet these are the golden threads that enable sporting events of the scale and success that we saw at London 2012. Far too much in this Bill is left to secondary legislation, most of it on the negative procedure.
But to take a step back for a moment, as other noble Lords have said, when we get it right, sport goes much further than the field of play. Think about the mottos for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, “Amigos para siempre”; the Paralympic Games, “Sport Beyond Limits”; and, as my noble friend Lady Grey-Thompson referred to, London 2012, “Inspire a Generation”—that is what sport can do at every level, not least at the major events and mega events.
My Lords, I travelled the world from the age of 11, competing or working at all major sporting events, and I was very proud to be part of the 2012 bid team. I am also very proud to say that my dad coached my noble friend Lord Holmes. I have seen the benefits that hosting a major Games brings to a host city and country, and the challenges that it poses. For example, compare the difference between my first Olympic Games in Montreal, which financially shackled the locals for decades, to the amazing success of 2012, which ended up being the exact opposite—uniting our country as I have never witnessed before. I am sure that those who attended the 1966 World Cup will also have that feeling.
Sport can do miraculous things. It can be uplifting, inspiring and hugely beneficial to regeneration and business. It can leave a legacy, raise community and national emotion, and bring cohesiveness. But we must get it right. At the sporting events I have been around within the last century, I have seen sport increasingly relegated to a level sometimes less important than the opening and closing ceremonies or events that take place around it. This can sometimes detract. More importantly, it makes events extremely expensive to host and to organise. There must be a balance. At present, we are getting it wrong, which is so many fewer countries are interested in hosting major events. We need to get back to centring the sport, with sensible budgets. I say this not to be boring and restrictive but to be practical.
My Lords, I hope colleagues will forgive my rustiness today, because this is the first proper speech I have made since my long, enforced absence from the House: that is, apart from jumping up at Question Time, which I am tempted to do perhaps rather too often. I hope I will be able to contribute. I did not expect to be following an Olympic swimmer in this debate. I hope I will do half as well as my noble friend Lord Barber did, following the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson. I will try my best. I will also avoid saying anything about the nature of Scottish refereeing as a Hearts supporter, but I think all noble Lords know what I mean.
I strongly support this Bill, which was excellently introduced by my noble friend. I think that, together with the draft ticket touts Bill, it will help to protect fans from the exploitation that they have been experiencing. It is estimated that it will save £112 million annually, and that fans will save about £37 on the average ticket in the resale market, so it is a very important issue. It is sensible to legislate for a common set of provisions that can be applied to specific events by secondary legislation, saving time in this Parliament and, in particular, in the devolved Parliaments.
It is urgent because, as we prepare for the 2028 Euros, which, as the Minister said, are going to be held in the UK and Ireland, it is important that we have, as she indicated, a common set of provisions on transport planning, street trading restrictions and commercial exclusion zones. That is a very welcome development, because the Euros are now so much larger than the competition that I attended in Sweden in 1992—supporting Scotland, of course. Then, only eight countries participated, and it was very easy and cheap to get tickets. I found myself sitting next to the then president of the Scottish Football Association. That would not happen these days. It was much easier in those days. Nine stadia are being used in 2028. I fear that Hampden Park is going to be a bit of a letdown for visitors. I think it is one of the worst stadia in this United Kingdom in terms of toilet and catering facilities. It is a disgrace to Scotland that we have not been able to build a world-class stadium when we see them much better in developing countries around the world. I issue a plea today to the SFA to do something about it.
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The UK’s record of hosting world-class, major sporting events is one we should all be proud of. Last summer alone, we smashed records, delivering the biggest ever Women’s Rugby World Cup, with unprecedented crowd numbers watching on as the Red Roses lifted the trophy as champions.
As we set out in our manifesto, this Government are committed to continuing to deliver international events like these with pride, seeking new opportunities where we can, to create a legacy to inspire the next generation of talent while promoting exercise and healthy living. We have already secured a fantastic pipeline of events over the coming years. This summer alone will see the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, the European Athletics Championships and the Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup. Next year brings the grand départ for the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes, and then, together with Ireland, we host the UEFA European Championship in 2028. Last month, we announced that we have commissioned our expert arm’s-length body, UK Sport, to carry out an initial assessment to consider the feasibility of hosting a future Olympic and Paralympic Games in the north in the 2040s.
Major sporting events are an economic success story. They drive economic growth and job creation, acting as a catalyst for inward investment, improving transport connections, and playing a key role in the regeneration of world-class facilities for communities up and down the country to enjoy. For example, this Government are investing up to £557 million into hosting Euro 2028. This investment alone is predicted to deliver £3.2 billion of socioeconomic benefits across the UK, which is a nearly sixfold direct return on investment.
Such landmark occasions leave a lasting legacy, creating unparalleled pathways for people to engage in physical activity and find their own place in the sporting life of the UK. Impact ‘25, the Women’s Rugby World Cup legacy programme, has reached 850 clubs up and down the country since its inception in 2024, and 37,000 women and girls in the last year alone. It has trained more than 3,000 new female coaches and match officials.
The purpose of this Bill is therefore simple but important: to better equip the UK to attract and deliver the biggest international sporting events and ensure that we can continue to deliver these benefits in the years to come. The UK already has a global reputation for excellence in hosting major sporting events. This Bill will bolster that reputation and send a clear message: the UK is event-ready.
Global competition to host major sporting events is fierce and increasing. The UK is a strong player in this field but this Bill gives further confidence that we are ready to uphold our commitments and stay competitive. It will set in statute a framework that enables certain sporting events to benefit from the enhanced commercial protections needed to preserve the integrity of events and, importantly, offset cost to taxpayers. This Bill is built on our foundational principle of a UK-wide approach, co-designed with devolved partners to serve the entire union. Most immediately, these provisions underpin the successful delivery of Euro 2028 and, should the UK’s bid be successful—as I am sure all noble Lords hope it will be—the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2035.
At its core, the Bill sets out a framework that allows a standard set of measures to be applied to sporting events that meet certain conditions. Ministers here or in each of the devolved Governments will consider which of the measures set out in the Bill are appropriate for any given qualifying event and apply them through regulations. These regulations will set out event-specific details, such as where and when the measures apply.
For an event to be in scope, it must meet three conditions: first, it must take place, at least in part, in the UK; secondly, it must not regularly be held here; and, thirdly, it must either be an event of significant international interest, with the potential to deliver social or economic benefits, or an event of strategic importance in facilitating other such events being held in the UK in the future. In practice, this means those one-off bids for major sporting events that move from host to host, such as the Euros, world cups or Olympic and Paralympic Games—events where enhanced commercial protections are needed to meet the conditions of hosting and where every effort should unashamedly be made to enhance the UK’s competitive advantage. The Bill provides a framework of time-limited provisions that can be applied by the UK and the devolved Governments to events meeting these criteria.
It will put fans first by criminalising the unauthorised resale of tickets for qualifying sporting events. This will help ensure that event organisers have greater control over the onward sale of tickets and that more tickets go directly to genuine supporters rather than to touts seeking to profit from events in the UK that are subsidised by the public purse. Your Lordships will be aware of the Government’s commitment and separate plans to introduce a price cap on the resale of tickets for live events more generally to prevent fans being ripped off by touts. Those measures will preserve a thriving resale market while cracking down on exploitative touts, so that fans do not feel forced into paying vastly inflated prices. I emphasise that we are fully committed to these wider and separate measures and will publish a draft Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny in this parliamentary Session.
To ensure that the wider secondary ticketing provisions operate effectively, we want to listen to the live events sector and fans before formally introducing them to Parliament. Doing so will ensure that the legislation is enforceable and future-proof. The tightly drawn ticketing provisions in the Bill are designed to deliver on the specific requirements of major sporting event owners when we are bidding for events that do not normally take place in the UK. These requirements are made clear during bidding processes and involve limiting the sale and resale of tickets to authorised bodies and platforms only.
The Bill also covers powers on advertising and trading. This second aspect will enable the prohibition of unauthorised advertising and trading around event locations by bringing forward time-limited criminal offences. In practice, this means that the Government will be able to put in place restricted advertising and trading zones around places such as competition venues, official fan zones, transport hubs and any areas surrounding them, provided these places are being used for or in connection with the sporting event in question. These provisions are designed to protect commercial investment while minimising the impact on existing businesses. They will also help support the safe movement of spectators.
Thirdly, the Bill will prohibit unauthorised association with a qualifying sporting event through a general prohibition enforceable through the civil courts. Sponsorship is a critical revenue stream for event organisers and owners. If sponsors believe their rights can or will be undermined by rival businesses creating an unauthorised association with the event, the commercial value of sponsoring UK-hosted events diminishes. This provision will help create an attractive offer for sponsors by protecting their investment and commercial rights, helping to shield the taxpayer from increased hosting costs.
Fourthly, the Bill includes provision to manage transport and traffic in relation to a sporting event in England. Effective transport and traffic management is essential to the safe and smooth operation of any major event, and the Bill will ensure that those arrangements can be properly supported.
Separate from these framework powers, the Bill will also create a bespoke funding power to enable the efficient and successful delivery of sporting events across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This means, for the Secretary of State, a single, dedicated power for the future funding of sporting events in England. It will also provide Scottish Ministers and Northern Ireland departments with the power to support sporting events in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively. Financial assistance provided through this provision will be subject to ministerial discretion, alongside the usual processes to ensure that it aligns with the general principles for managing public money. Sufficient funding powers already exist in Wales, so this provision will not apply there.
Taken together, these provisions will help ensure that the United Kingdom remains an attractive host for major sporting events and continues to build on its world-leading reputation in this field. If we get this right, the benefits will be felt far beyond the field of play. They will be felt not just in host towns and cities but across the country—in the businesses and communities that benefit from them, in the young people inspired by them and in our communities across the UK unified by them. I hope your Lordships’ House will welcome this Bill and I look forward to the debate. I beg to move.
As she mentioned, London hosted the wonderful 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and I join her in paying tribute to the great Tessa Jowell. Alongside the Games was the Cultural Olympiad. Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony—a beautiful, brilliant spectacular— was a showcase for our great creative industries and ended memorably with our monarch meeting James Bond and then jumping out of a helicopter. It was not just about the Olympic arena. Across the nation, people got together to engage in cultural activities; in all, 621 productions and projects resulted in 13,000 performances and events at 1,270 venues across the UK. However, the legislation passed for those Games did not include their cultural element. For the sporting events that fall under this legislation, will the Minister consider including affiliated cultural events? There appears to be scope, and I think she was suggesting this in her opening remarks, but we would like to make this clearer in legislation.
Then there is the group A of listed sporting events, the crown jewels protected for free-to-air TV. This Bill has been created with sporting events of significant interest in mind—events that we believe should also be free to air. Group A should be expanded. There was joy, and of course sorrow, for those able to see the UEFA final last weekend. Should it not have been something that everyone could access to watch for free? What about the Glasgow Commonwealth Games happening this July? We on these Benches believe there should be no need for special pleading from the Prime Minister—just add this to the Bill.
Then there are infrastructure, transport and security. Some of these considerations have made it into the Bill, which is a positive step and again welcomed by these Benches. But built environment intervention seems to be missing: athletes’ accommodation, as well as facilities for visitors, restaurants, parks and access to accommodation at an appropriate price range. These would drive opportunities to boost the tourist economy and are needs that we think should be considered within the framework and the Bill.
We are glad to see consideration of advertising and branding. This is important for interconnected reasons: a good legal framework protects sports organisations from unauthorised branding and marketing, but also, as the Minister said, makes deals for official sponsors more appealing. It also limits the unauthorised use of marketing for activities, usually online, that could cause harm. My noble friend Lord Foster will elaborate on this topic and, noble Lords will not be surprised to hear, on gambling. There is also the matter of the use of trademarks—more on this from my noble friend Lord Addington.
Finally, and I think this has happened again today, some concern has been expressed in the House about having to wait for a draft ticketing Bill. Does this Bill not provide an opportunity to discuss how we can create a strong anti-touting ticket system across the board, with proper enforcement? Does the Minister not agree that we should seize this opportunity now, rather than have to wait another year for a different Bill? We look forward to working with the Government on this Bill.
There is a lot to be said for avoiding bespoke legislation every time we want to bid for a Games. I support much of the Bill, but I think we could be just a little bolder. It is potentially a really exciting time to look at a possible bid for a Games in the north. I am Welsh but with a geographical designation of Eaglescliffe in the County of Durham, and there is a lot of local interest. I understand that it is probably too early for the Minister to say, but I would welcome a little more understanding of what the definition of the north is. I would prefer us to say the north of England. A lot of the UK is above where I live. People remember those magical times and understand what major sporting events can do for us.
We are looking for Welsh legislative consent, and the Long Title mentions Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. I wonder whether I am missing something, but I would like to understand why Wales is not there. What conversations and discussions have taken place with the new Government in Wales?
Next year, the Tour de France grand départ will go through Scotland, England and Wales. This is a really exciting time to re-emphasise the power that the UK has in international sport. I wonder what impact the Bill might have where sport is devolved, and where there is a crossover with major events. Will we still be able to use the Bill to bid for events such as that in the future? These are important things. UK Sport and the UK have a great deal of expertise in bidding for events.
It is important to note that our international reputation is also based on holding and hosting much smaller events. That shows our commitment to sport and it is something we are really good at. Recently the UK hosted the world team table tennis event, which was incredible. It also shows the international federations, which have an impact on our bids for major events, that we are committed to a variety of sports.
The Commonwealth Games is an important part of that. We are hugely thankful to Glasgow for stepping in. It is important to Wales and Welsh athletes as a potential stepping stone to GB. It connects local people to the athletes. For all the countries in the Commonwealth—Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but also the smaller countries—it means an awful lot, and we should be proud of that.
I am very interested in what the major sporting events strategy will look like. One of the things that UK Sport recognises and works very well at promoting when bidding for smaller events is that they sit across the four home countries. In Wales we had the AIG golf in Porthcawl and world para fencing in Cardiff. All those make an impact and do not need primary legislation, but they tie to our global aspiration.
One of the things that arose out of the recent Soft Power Council meeting was that more clarity was required on what is a major or mega sporting event. I wonder whether His Majesty’s Government intend to offer a definition of this, because it would be hugely beneficial for the sector. The sport sector in its entirety is huge and significant, and this would help in some of the future planning. A number of organisations that work with current UK events are asking for this clarity. You could argue that additional help is not needed if they are currently operating and successful, but it is important to understand the jigsaw that needs to exist in what we are trying to aspire to on the world stage.
You should never underestimate the impact that the UK has in promoting disability events, not just in starting the Paralympic Games and 2012 but in our ongoing role. One such example is wheelchair tennis; the LTA is one of the best governing bodies at promoting inclusion and is doing a really good job.
The world is changing, not least due to climate change. By the time we get to Brisbane 2032, there might be a very different Games—not just the type of events that are included, as there is a move to more street and urban games, but the impact on climate change. I would like to understand more about what consideration has been given to environmental sustainability, transport—we know that is going to be an issue in Los Angeles—and how we can further push for decarbonisation. A lot of sports are already looking at this. You could argue that the easiest way to help the environment is to have athletes not travel anywhere. The Games are going to be very different. We need to be fleet of foot in what we do in the UK to understand what bidding for future Games might look like.
The legacy of 2012 was amazing. I am always slightly uncomfortable when people say that the 2012 Paralympics changed the world for disabled people. It was the best eight weeks of my life, but we also have to be careful about overselling what sport can do unless we invest in legacy. Join In, the volunteering charity, was an incredible legacy of the 2012 Games. We need to think about how we build in social and community aspects at bid stage. It is cheaper and easier, and there is more chance of it working. There is always a spike in participation after the Games, but if we think about legacy at the very start, we have a real chance of making a difference.
The cost of bidding was raised. I remember, in 2005, talking to one of the planners for 2012 and them talking about the difficulty of predicting the cost of steel seven years into the future. This is something that other countries will be looking at as well, because you can sometimes spend millions on bidding for a Games. We have to be very smart in what we do.
I know this is outside the remit of the Bill, but this year the UK is hosting the summit for the International Working Group on Women and Sport. This started in 1994 as the Brighton declaration, and it is now the Brighton and Helsinki declaration. It has support from 600 organisations around the world. The summit in July will be an amazing opportunity to network, and I hope there will be a ministerial presence there. This is a situation where the eyes of the world will be on us. We have a chance to influence sport and international federations, but it is not a sporting event as we might think about it.
In Committee we will also need to look at the cost of policing and security. Sadly, it is a necessity. We are seeing that the cost of policing and security is making it unsustainable to hold some of the smaller events in the UK, which are part of the jigsaw for what we want to do in the future.
This is not quite in the Bill, but we have been talking in Grand Committee about the Care Quality Commission and its changing guidance. It would be great if we could join up the different threads of conversation to make sure that we are in the best possible shape to go forward. I thank the Sport and Recreation Alliance for its continued discussion in this space.
I support the Bill. We have an amazing opportunity. We could be a little bit braver. If I can steal a quote from the 2012 Games, we have a chance to inspire a generation.
As the chair of Somerset County Cricket Club until recently, I should mention too that, starting imminently, this country is hosting the Women’s T20 Cricket World Cup. In participation it will be by far the biggest event of its kind, with over a quarter of a million attendances and tickets already sold in 52 countries. More importantly, over 500,000 girls and women from diverse backgrounds will participate in related events; 236,000 schoolchildren already have. This is a huge step towards the ECB’s ambition for cricket to become the most diverse and inclusive sport in the country.
This, by the way, is just one aspect of the transformation of cricket, which may be the fastest-growing sport in the world, driven in part by becoming an Olympic sport in LA 2028. Extraordinary things are happening. Last week Nepal beat China at cricket. Recently, I was talking to a good county cricket bowler who was retiring. I asked, “What next?” He said, “I’ve just been interviewed for the role of fast bowling coach to the German women’s cricket team”. Imagine the headlines if we ever lose to Germany at cricket.
We the UK need to be ready and able to continue hosting these events in an increasingly sport-mad world where the competition to host them is becoming ever fiercer. No other country can boast our history of global sporting leadership—the Paralympics have been mentioned—but winning bids in the future will require many more world-class, accessible, environmentally sustainable venues, brilliant organisation and logistics, top facilities for athletes, fantastic media and sponsorship, outstanding travel and hospitality, socially inclusive promotion, ticketing and pricing—unlike for the forthcoming World Cup—and discreet, effective security for athletes, fans and spectators. If we get even one of these wrong, it will threaten not just that event but our ability to attract future events, which is one of the reasons why the Bill is so important. If we are to assure the owners of these events that we can host them better than anywhere else in the world, it is essential for the UK and its Government to stand four-square behind every single bid to assure it and actively support it in the various ways I have just mentioned.
On 3 September 2018, the cycling Tour of Britain came to my local town, Barnstaple, where I was able to introduce the young cyclists from our North Devon Wheelers club to Geraint Thomas, the brilliant Welsh cyclist and that year’s winner of the Tour de France. He is a wonderful man. Inspired by that moment and by their own talent and hard work, those young cyclists have gone on to cycling success in the years that followed—and the Tour de France is coming. The most profound impact of major sporting events is these moments: the memories made, the ambitions spurred, the potential unlocked, the legacy. This is why I hope we will see overwhelming support for the Bill.
To finish where I started, Emil Zátopek’s most succinct and memorable advice back then to his fellow athletes also applies to Governments when the going gets tough:
“When you can’t keep going, go faster”.
I commend the Bill to the House.
So for me the main question that arises in relation to the legislation we are discussing today is quite a simple one: why should one-off international events be given protections deemed necessary for their successful delivery, while those same protections are not to be offered to iconic homegrown events that have been a regular part of the UK’s cultural calendar for generations?
Ministers have said that the legislation will help make it easier for the UK to host major sporting events, creating jobs and investment, and that is extremely welcome. Yet the definition of the eligible events in the Bill as currently drafted is very restrictive and denies Ministers the flexibility to support the full breadth of the UK’s world-class sporting calendar. The skeleton nature of the Bill, setting out the framework but naturally leaving much of the detail to secondary legislation, means that regular UK events that are not covered by the provisions could become increasingly at a competitive disadvantage, particularly in relation to securing sponsorship over time, for instance.
These are not just abstract concerns—there will be practical consequences as a result. As Alex Kelham and Freya Davey of Lewis Silkin highlighted in a recent article, the Bill as it stands leaves a clear gap by its exclusion of regularly held UK events. They point out:
“These events collectively bring enormous economic value to the UK”
and are routinely impacted by a number of the challenges that the Bill seeks to address.
Take ambush marketing, for instance. At present, major events organisers are forced to rely on private legal remedies to tackle it—which are costly, complex, and often insufficient. In Schedule 4 the Bill introduces a stronger statutory protection against unauthorised commercial association, and that is very welcome. But why should those provisions and protections be reserved for one-off events? Why should an international tournament benefit from clear statutory rights while a world-renowned, regularly held UK event has to continue to rely on imperfect private law remedies?
The Bill itself already contains a flexible framework, allowing Ministers to decide how protections apply to different events currently within its scope. I do not believe that extending that flexibility to established, regular UK events would be radical—rather, it would be an entirely logical extension of the Bill’s provisions.
At a time when the sector is already under strain due to a variety of challenges, including rising policing costs, the implications of Martyn’s law, increased employment costs, regulatory pressures and higher business rates, the absence of the protections from the proposed sporting framework set out in the Bill to major UK-based events organisers which are excluded feels particularly acute.
We are told that a major events strategy is forthcoming; again, that is very welcome. However, without the legislative ambition to match, there is a risk that it will fall short of what the sector needs and is asking for. If this Bill acknowledges that protections such as those against ambush marketing are insufficient, the answer is surely not to apply them selectively but to strengthen them more widely—not just for the events we hope to host, but for those that already define us. The Government should and I hope will grasp the opportunity to expand the Bill and ensure that regularly held events can be as successful as possible.
I am sure we will discuss this in Committee, but I encourage the Minister to go further and extend the provisions in the Bill to include annual, nationally significant UK-based sporting events. When will the Government publish their major events strategy, and how does the Minister see this legislation fitting within a genuinely comprehensive approach that includes, rather than excludes, the UK’s iconic homegrown events?
Finally, there are powers in the Finance Act 2014 to exempt overseas competitors and officials accredited by the organisers from income tax for the period of major events—such as the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where regulations have recently been passed to do that. Given the desire to bring together the suite of powers to cover the respective events in this legislation, is the Minister confident that those existing provisions are sufficient to ensure a joined-up and responsive approach to major events being hosted in the UK?
Looking ahead, the UEFA Men’s European Championships in 2028, hosted by the UK and Ireland, and a potential FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2035, will again demonstrate what this country has to offer and will be an opportunity to build bonds with other nations by sharing a common human experience. In doing so, they will contribute directly to the UK’s soft power. The ability to convene the world—to host global audiences, athletes and institutions—reinforces our position not merely as a participant in international sport but as a trusted and capable partner. This is not just culturally valuable; it is strategically important. At a time when nations are consciously using sport to project influence and attract investment, the Government have recognised that the UK cannot afford to stand still.
As UK Sport has made clear, certainty and clarity in the legal and regulatory environment are now baseline requirements for international rights holders. The days of relying on ad hoc assurances are long gone. Organisers want to know that a country can move quickly, legislate coherently and deliver reliably. This Bill responds directly to that reality; that is why it has been welcomed by the sector. The British Olympic Association has also endorsed the shift away from bespoke event-by-event legislation, noting that a standing framework strengthens the UK’s competitiveness. I also welcome the Government’s commission of UK Sport to assess the potential for hosting the Olympic or Paralympic Games in the north of England in 2040.
I too welcome the appointment of my noble friend Lord McConnell as a ministerial adviser on soft power and major events; he will bring his long experience and endless enthusiasm to the task. Both are important steps in thinking strategically about the UK’s role as a host nation. That work sits alongside a broader opportunity for the United Kingdom to think more strategically about its events pipeline—how we identify, secure and deliver a balanced portfolio of major events that reflects not only economic opportunity but national priorities such as regional growth, inclusion and sustainability.
The Government are right to build a pipeline of future events that brings growth and inward investment. However, existing excellence should not be overlooked. Our established events are the foundation on which much of our reputation as a host nation rests. They demonstrate year after year that the UK can deliver complex, high-profile international events to the highest standard. It is therefore worth the Government reflecting on whether the framework can evolve, in this Bill or alongside it, to recognise that contribution more explicitly.
I speak with a particular interest as a member of the APPG on golf. Scotland is recognised internationally as the home of golf. In the UK, the Open Championship and the DP World Tour are not peripheral events but among the most economically significant and globally watched sporting occasions. For example, the 2024 Open Championship generated over £300 million in economic benefit, and a UK-hosted Ryder Cup would be comparable to a Rugby World Cup in visitor spend and international profile. While a Solheim Cup, one of the premier competitions in women’s sport, has yet to be hosted in England, that could be a Lioness moment to inspire a new generation of young girls and the entire golf ecosystem. I hope that the forthcoming major events strategy will take note of these opportunities.
Research supported by the R&A illustrates the wider contribution of golf to the UK economy and to society. In 2019, the sport generated over £5 billion in consumer spending, supported more than 60,000 jobs and contributed around £2.6 billion in economic value. Beyond that, golf delivers over £1 billion in social value each year through improvements to physical health, mental well-being and community engagement. That research also highlights health outcomes. Regular participation in golf contributes to the prevention and management of numerous chronic conditions, and golfers live, on average, longer than non-golfers— so get your clubs out. This is a reminder that sport delivers public health benefits as well as economic returns.
I know that the Government will want to reassure the sector that established events will not be inadvertently disadvantaged relative to those brought within the Bill’s framework. The forthcoming cross-sector major events strategy should explicitly address the needs of the regularly staged, nationally significant events.
Turning to enforcement, I welcome the provisions designed to put fans first, particularly those addressing ticket touting. However, given the scale and sophistication of secondary ticketing markets, I do wonder whether the £20,000 cap represents a sufficient deterrent for large-scale operators and whether this will be kept under review as markets evolve. Similarly, the provisions on ambush marketing are essential, given how prevalent this issue is across all sports events; it is not confined to one-off events, and affects commercially significant recurring events. There may therefore be merit in considering whether association rights could, in future, be extended—on a targeted basis or by regulation—to events of genuine national significance. The gap between one-off and recurring events could then be narrowed
I too emphasise the importance of legacy. The true test of this Bill will be not only the events it enables but the impact those events leave behind—in participation, in infrastructure, in economic opportunity and in community well-being. A strong framework is a start, but delivery will decide the outcome.
This is a welcome, timely and necessary Bill. It honours a manifesto commitment, reflects the Government’s ambition for the UK to remain a world-leading host of major sporting events and responds directly to the expectations of international organisers. I welcome the Bill and will support it as it progresses through the House.
That is what we looked to do when we started the planning journey for London 2012. We appreciated that the way to make good Games great Games was twofold: first, to have the athletes at the heart of every decision we made; secondly, to have access, diversity and inclusion hardwired into every decision right from the outset. To that end, does the Minister not agree that it would be helpful to have some of those principles set out in the Bill at this stage? It is about principles, which I do not believe would in any sense fetter the flexibility that is required when we come to the secondary legislation that goes into more of the operational detail.
There is much in the Bill on ticketing, but what of inclusive ticketing? At London 2012, we were clear: no free tickets. But we enabled hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren to experience world-class sport, often for the first time, by having the highest-priced tickets include a portion to fund those tickets that went to schoolchildren right across the United Kingdom. What about affordability, and having social and economic inclusion? What about accessibility within the ticket offer? Touting is critically important to address, but anti-touting measures in and of themselves say nothing to affordability and accessibility.
Similarly, when we planned the ticketing offering, we made sure that if you were a wheelchair user you could sit with your friends and family, which had never been possible at a sporting event before that. If you had a hearing impairment, you had a seat with direct line of sight to the video board. If you had a mobility impairment, you had a seat at the end of the row. There was an inclusive ticket offering right through the Games experience. Does the Minister not agree that there were principles there that we could see in the Bill?
On that first touchpoint, often with a major sporting event, when trying to get a ticket in the first place, so many tickets are now available only in digital form. What does the Minister think about the need for non-digital and analogue tickets, and other means for people to access tickets to these major sporting events? Does the Minister not agree that it would be helpful to incorporate all this by having an inclusive-by-design statutory objective right at the top of the Bill?
On innovation, AI and other technologies have the potential to play such a positive role when it comes to the organisation and delivery of these events—think about predictive crowd modelling, the operation of transportation, city operations, the last mile and almost every element of planning these events. Yet there is no overarching AI framework or strategy set out in the Bill. Without addressing this point, it is likely that the approaches to AI will be partial, have gaps and say nothing in terms of bias, transparency, privacy and understandability for those spectators, games organisers and people who will be participating in events that are potentially subject to AI without even knowing that AI is in the mix.
What about digital ID? It could play such an important and positive role for accessing these sporting events safely and securely. The Bill envisages the creation of a whole heap of new data, often of a personal nature. What about provisions around the storage and sharing of that data? What about interoperability provisions being set throughout many of the Bill’s provisions? Would it not make sense to have a technology future-proofing clause within the Bill that could catch all this? At the moment, understandably, the Bill is technology neutral, but it is not technology future-proofed.
Bringing inclusion and innovation together is just one example. Imagine what could be achieved through a truly inclusive personalised accessibility service for disabled people, older people, younger people and all people wanting to access these sporting events, all of whom—including all of us—will have particular needs that could be addressed through that alchemy of inclusion and innovation.
To conclude, sport has such power to inspire change—to change us as individuals, as communities, as cities and as a country. We saw it at London 2012. We see it in sport like in almost no other cultural experience in our human experience. What does that look like? To illustrate it, one example is the late, great Stephen Hawking speaking at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympics; not just talking about possibilities beyond ourselves but also talking about possibilities beyond our universe. What a way to blast into 11 days of gravity-defying, attitude-altering, opportunity-creating, world-class sport—world-class sport that changes us and that goes way beyond the stadia.
London 2012 changed us. Major events change us as a United Kingdom. Remember how we all felt in that summer of 2012? Do we not need just some of that change right now, today? Let major sporting events of the future across these shores continue to inspire future generations, and let the Sporting Events Bill play such a positive part in that change.
It is the sport, with the human stories of triumph over adversity, that people remember, bringing the action into our living rooms, inspiring the champions of tomorrow, and, hopefully, also inspiring a healthier nation as people get back to old habits and try new ones. That is a massive part of hosting any event; it is what brings our communities together, how athletes can be used to bring good by changing behaviours, selling our country to the world, building trade and tourism by providing a shop window with economic benefits to hotels, restaurants, merchandise and transport —all the things that we all know and have talked about already.
Infrastructure and legacy are also extremely important. We built more 50-metre pools in the three years leading up to London 2012 than we built in the previous 30 here in the UK. As a young swimmer, I had to travel from Plymouth to London to be able to swim in an Olympic-sized pool. Australia has a policy of building one if they have a community over a certain size; it has 400 50-metre pools in their country, which has a population of 27 million. I do not know whether noble Lords would like to guess how many we have in the UK. It is not even 30. Australia says that residents should live within a 15-minute drive of a public aquatic centre. At the moment, we are closing pools at an alarming rate, and in the last few weeks we have seen at least 17 people die from drowning.
I have been presenting sport since the late 1980s. The BBC has not missed a major sporting event for decades, but recently there has been a huge decline in coverage. It did not do the world swimming championships last year. It is not doing the home Commonwealth Games this year, gallantly rescued by Glasgow, or the European championships that are on in Paris, not even that far away. Swimming, still one of the UK’s biggest participation sports, has not been on terrestrial television since the Paris Olympic Games. When we hold UK events, we must have them covered on the BBC, not just on the red button, radio or hidden online. If public money is being used to bring these events to our country, the public ought to be able to see them without them being behind a paywall.
I had a recent conversation with the BBC, which is not covering anywhere near the variety of sports that it once did, including swimming, rowing and triathlon this summer. I was informed last week that the BBC does not expect to cover swimming until the next Olympic Games in LA. That is four years in between showing swimming—one of our biggest participation sports and a sport that saves lives, so it is important to inspire people to want to swim—and that is not good enough. Nearly two-thirds of the BBC’s sports budget goes on football, while every other sport has to scrabble around to get any airtime whatever. Surely the job of the BBC is to be a national service doing a national job for the whole community.
Lots of points have been made today, but I have two final points that I would like to make. We must bid for fabulous, inspiring, growth-generating sporting events, but we must centre the sport using existing facilities, including university accommodation, reduce peripheral events, and make them affordable. Multisport events are hugely popular and the public love them. Secondly, our national broadcaster must cover all major international events that come to the UK, showing a broad stretch of sports, so that young people are not limited to just the big three. Certain sports are growing, but a lot of other sports are just disappearing. The disappointment the British swimmer community feels at being abandoned is tangible, and I know that other sports feel the same way. It makes it difficult for our hard-working athletes to get sponsorship to stay in their sport if they get no exposure. This does not happen in other countries. We are one of the worst countries in the world for showing a variety of sports on our terrestrial television. Kids cannot be what they do not see, and we desperately need our kids to be inspired.
My final thought—again, I do not mean to be depressing —is that the Commonwealth Games were rescued from Victoria by Glasgow because of cost. For the next two Olympic Games, there was actually no competition to have them because not enough countries bid. There was only one for each of the Games. So we have to be sensible in the way we place our bids.
Another issue that has been drawn to my attention is the number of tickets that are allocated to corporate sponsors at these events. Apparently, this happened in Paris with the game between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal. Often, those tickets are not used, and fans find it difficult to get tickets. I hope that UEFA and other international organisations will look at that to see that, if tickets are not going to be taken up by corporate sponsors, they are allocated to fans.
Now I am going to agree, and this is most unusual, with the noble Baroness, Lady Evans of Bowes Park. I cannot remember the last time, if ever, I agreed with her. That shows what sportsmanship there is here on this Bill. I read the suggestion from Alex Kelham and Freya Davey that these events—not one-off events, but regular events—can be included. I hope the Minister and the Government will look at that. I think, looking across at the noble Baroness, that there will be scope for an all-party amendment when we get to Committee.
I now come to a wider issue. I wrote a report entitled Football Governance—Business and Values for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which it agreed, highlighting that the integrity of the world’s most popular sport is at risk. Since I wrote it a few years ago, the integrity of football has become even more at risk. It is urgent to protect football from rogue actors and commercial exploitation, including agents who are making billions of pounds, many of them based here in London, and from the football establishment itself. As we approach the start of the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada, it has got worse rather than better. Was not the presentation of the so-called “FIFA Peace Prize” by Gianni Infantino to Donald Trump, of all people, appalling? So was the award of the 2034 competition to Saudi Arabia, without competition, in spite of its appalling human rights record. That shows how bad this has become. Money and greed have taken over. So I say to the Minister that I hope that, beyond what we are discussing today, beyond this Bill, our Government, the Government of the United Kingdom, will take the lead in condemning and counteracting this abuse of football at every opportunity, for the good name of the great game of football.