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10.34 am
Mr. Tom Pendry (Stalybridge and Hyde): I begin by congratulating the Secretary of State on his fine speech.I thank him and, indeed, the hon. Member for West Suffolk (Mr. Spring) for their kind remarks about me.I was impressed that the Secretary of State knew about
the Charlie George goal. I wonder whether the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow), who tried to catch him out, knows to which club Charlie George went after Arsenal to play some of his best football. I shall give him a hint--it is the best team in the land. He clearly cannot.
Mr. Ivor Caplin (Hove): Derby County.
Mr. Pendry: Indeed, Derby County.
I congratulate the Secretary of State also on initiating this debate. Let us hope that it becomes a regular practice, because sport is not discussed enough in the House. That is curious when one considers the interest in sporting issues here, which is reflected in the number of groups that we have. I chair the all-party sports group; the all-party football committee is very large, and there are many other groups, including a boxing group. However, nothing seems to change about Friday morning debates on sport. I hope that, one of these days, the Secretary of State will manage to get a debate on sport in Government time during the week when many of our colleagues who would like to participate can be here--they have constituency engagements on Fridays.
I have already mentioned my chairmanship of the all-party sports group. I should like to place on record the important role played for sport by my predecessor,Lord Howell, and echo the words of the Secretary of State. I am sure that the whole House recognises the great work that Lord Howell did over the years. He will be sorely missed.
I am pleased to see in their places the three vice-chairmen of the all-party sports group, although the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Mr. Hawkins), who will be winding up for the Opposition, has temporarily left the Chamber. We have here the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Mr. Jones), who will speak for the Liberal Democrats, my hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston (Mr. Keen) and the secretary of the group, my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, West (Mr. Thomas). I hope that they will successfully catch your eye, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
My hon. Friend the Minister for Sport went on record at the time of his appointment to talk about his job description, which he said was like going to heaven without dying first. I wonder whether he feels the same today. From what he is reported in the Sunday Express as saying, he must feel that he is at least in purgatory and some distance from the pearly gates. He must not despair; he must keep plugging away. I have said many times that sport politics is much more difficult to deal with than the general politics of the House and Whitehall. He was right to point out in that article the limitations of his job. No Government have given adequate recognition to the sports portfolio.
My hon. Friend has had a busy, action-packed year. On a personal note, he has been able to savour the joy of Chelsea winning not just one, but two cups--an achievement almost as staggering as the size of the Labour victory in the last general election. The whole House will want to congratulate him on the energetic and enthusiastic way in which he is supporting England's bid to host the world cup in 2006, which, hopefully, will be successful. We should be encouraged by the fact that we have the finest stadiums infrastructure in Europe and South Africa, which is bidding to host the finals in four years' time.
At this point, I want to declare an interest, as a good deal of the credit for the improvements to our stadiums is due to the Football Trust, which I chair. I am sure that the whole House will want to join me in paying tribute to the work of my predecessor, Lord Aberdare, who presided over the trust when the majority of the building of our fine stadiums took place.
The Minister for Sport recently paid tribute to Lord Aberdare, stating that football was indebted to him for his magnificent contribution to our national game. He went on to speak warmly about the major contribution that the Football Trust has made. The Secretary of State reaffirmed that view this morning. We at the trust welcome those remarks and hope that the trust can fulfil the Government's wish that it remains a UK body. That ambition is not helped by the fact that the trust's income from the reduction in pool betting duty applies only to England and Scotland and, even then, only to perform the essential Taylor work.
I therefore hope that the Secretary of State and the Minister for Sport will use their good offices to help to extend the life of the reduced pool betting duty, thus ensuring that the trust can continue its essential work for British football at every level.
Before to the general election--with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, who was then the shadow National Heritage spokesman--I launched the Labour party's sports policy document, "Labour's Sporting Nation", which has already been mentioned in this debate and was extremely well received throughout the sporting world. In it, Labour promised to become proactively involved in a number of issues to improve the quality of sports provision for participants, spectators and viewers. I should like briefly to review progress in reaching some of the commitments stated in that manifesto document.
Our earliest commitment--first made in November 1995--was to establish a football task force to represent the interests of everyone involved in football--administrators, players, spectators and viewers. One of the reasons for that commitment was a fear that the game was developing in a way which would not ensure access and involvement in its future by many of the supporters who had stuck with football during its more difficult years.
It was encouraging to see that that commitment was made a reality soon after the general election. Although the task force was my idea, I might have constituted it rather differently. Nevertheless, I welcome its efforts.
As we have heard in this debate, last month, the task force published its first report, on racism in football.I reiterate that it endorsed the Government's official policy--stated in our "Charter for Football"--to amend the flawed legislative provision in the Football (Offences) Act 1991, whereby an individual cannot be charged with a racist or obscene chant if that chant was not in concert with one or more other persons. Hopefully--I understand that the Home Secretary has confirmed that it will be--the provision will soon be redrafted to cover both individuals and groups.
Like the Secretary of State, I look forward to further reports from the task force. It will be interesting to see how it manages to reconcile the differing views on issues such as ticket prices and pay-per-view television. I am sure that we all await those reports with interest.
Another welcome development--congratulations again to my hon. Friend the Minister for Sport--is endorsement of the Brighton declaration on improving sporting opportunities for women. In my capacity as shadow sports Minister, I was able in 1994 to be present at the launch of that international event and gave the official blessing of the then Opposition to its aims.
The declaration was a statement that struck a chord for all those who support the principle of sport for all. Sadly, the then Conservative Government ridiculed that important statement as mere political correctness, taking a very short-sighted approach. I am glad that our Government have not taken such a view and that the Brighton declaration will be at the heart of all their future sports development policies.
In only 13 months, the Government have implemented many of our pre-election pledges. Only this week, in the debate on the National Lottery Bill--this is where I take issue with the hon. Member for West Suffolk--the House heard helpful responses, which have already been mentioned today, from both the Minister for Sport and the Minister for Arts. The Minister for Arts assured us that there will be no reason to believe the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts cannot be involved in sports science or sports information technology. The Minister for Sport stated clearly, as he has done again today, that his Department will continue to press for lottery money for sport after 2001.
During the past year, there have been many positive steps forward, but I have a major concern on an issue that I think the Minister will have to get to grips with and which will certainly be his priority in the next few months--the structural problems, which have already been mentioned today, that face British sport. I had hoped that the Government would make a greater impression onthe issue. In our document "Labour's Sporting Nation", the executive summary stated that we were committed to a
It is to be greatly regretted also that we do not have more movement on the development of regional academies of sport--or whatever we call them these days; I think that they have a new name now. From the central location in Sheffield, we need now to promote regional developments. Furthermore, there is not enough co-ordination between the United Kingdom Sports Council and the home countries sports councils. Each council needs to have a clearer understanding of its role. I agree with the hon. Member for West Suffolk on that.
Although I pay tribute to the skills of Sir Rodney Walker in taking on the role of acting chairman of the UK Sports Council, and of being chairman of the English Sports Council, surely it is now time to find a permanent chairman for that body to ensure a longer-term outlook.
The resignation of Howard Wells, which has been mentioned today, was a further disappointment. Anyone who has followed his career--especially the great work that he did in Hong Kong--will agree that he is sorely missed as a sports administrator in the wider sense of that role.
There is not a great deal wrong with the current set-up for sport in the United Kingdom; it is only not being effectively applied. The United Kingdom Sports Council must be allowed to perform its role as the lead strategic body for sport in the United Kingdom, working in partnership with the home countries sports councils, which will be responsible for implementing policy and performing grant distribution work. I firmly believe that they could all work together.
Parties currently engaged in infighting and introspection have to be encouraged to show the necessary good will in overcoming rather than finding problems within the existing framework. A few heads should be banged together and reminded that it is output--the extension of sporting opportunities--that matters, not internal structures and positions. We have not only to accept the current structure, which regards devolution as the basis for sports policy making, but to appreciate the strength of it. Nowhere can a decentralised approach have a greater impact if correctly applied. Such an approach can be a source of great strength for sport. As we all know, athletes take pride in representing not only their country, but their town and region.
I should like to offer a practical suggestion on protecting playing fields to my right hon. and hon. Friends. As we know, under the Tories, some 5,000 playing fields were flogged off. After pressure from us--the then Opposition--the Government gave the Sports Council statutory consultee status on sales, but that did not help much in preventing the number of fields being developed as car parks and housing estates. Once lost, those fields will never be recovered.
I think that I am right in asserting that, at the time of general election, 2,600 playing fields were under threat of development. Thanks to moves introduced by our new Government, which tightened school playing field regulations--as an amendment to the School Standards and Framework Bill--the vast majority of the fields have been saved for the nation and the enjoyment of our school children.
I believe that we can go further still and protect all open spaces--including those owned by further education colleges, universities, health authorities and the coal boards. Open spaces are the nation's sporting assets and they should remain so. We stated on page 6 of our sports policy document:
I hope that the Minister will pursue that proposal, working in conjunction with his fellow Ministers at both the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions.
"national strategy for sport dedicated to providing excellence at all levels."
I welcome the Secretary of State's assurance that, at a macro level, such a strategy is still being developed, but we have lost a good bit of time. Unfortunately, many of the benefits from development of an effective strategy will not materialise for the 2000 Olympics. I am sure that we all hope that we will not miss out again for 2004.
"We will end the policy of selling playing fields."
We also did not distinguish whether a public body owned the fields.
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