Official Report 284KB pdf
Item 2 is the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Bill. Our witnesses are Nick Brown, the bill team leader; Ian Campbell, from the Glasgow 2014 and London 2012 team; and David Thompson, policy adviser. We welcome you this morning. Do you want to make an opening statement before I call for questions?
We welcome the opportunity to come before the committee to discuss the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Bill so soon after its introduction. I will first introduce the team. Nick Brown is the recently appointed bill team leader. David Thompson has been working on the bill over the past few months. They sit in the team that we have established to deal with the Glasgow 2014 games.
Will you give us some more details about the consultation on the bill? Who did you consult? You mentioned Glasgow City Council as an example—are there any others who are worthy of a mention? You said that the bill was altered as a result of the consultation. Will you give us some examples of that? Will you also describe significant issues that were raised during the consultation but which were rejected and have not been reflected in the bill?
We met a number of organisations that responded to the consultation. Strathclyde partnership for transport made representations on who would be consulted on the transport plan. The meeting was positive, and we were able to assure it that it was expected that there would be wide consultation when the transport plan was developed. A slight adjustment was made to the draft bill to make it clearer that consultation was expected to take place.
We also received representations from Glasgow City Council on the levels of fine that will be associated with breaches of games traffic regulation orders. We felt that the level of fine in the traffic regulation orders was a sufficient deterrent to prevent someone from driving into a games lane. It is also not within the power of the Scottish Parliament to amend the level of fine—that is reserved under the Scotland Act 1998.
I understand that the cost of the games is forecast to be £372.977 million, which is a precise figure. For the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth games, the final price tag was four times the original bid estimate, and we have already seen severe cost overruns for the London Olympics in 2012. What safeguards exist to ensure that we do not see the same cost overruns for the 2014 games in Glasgow?
One of the main advantages that Glasgow has over both Manchester and London is that more than 70 per cent of the facilities and venues are already in place. Another 20 per cent are already planned, so the same capital infrastructure projects as in Manchester and London do not have to be carried out. Only about 20 per cent of our overall budget is for capital works, which should reduce the risk of the major overruns that were experienced in Manchester and London.
Associated infrastructure works—roads, rail and so on—are estimated at £2.5 billion. I take it that they are not in your budget.
No. Those projects are not in the games budget. They will go forward irrespective of the games.
So there is external support for them.
That question again takes us back to the fact that most of the facilities already exist and are already being used. We are not going to build an athletics stadium for 50,000 to 60,000 people that will no longer be used after the games. The decision to use Hampden Park in an innovative way by putting an athletics track into it was right. Halifax does not really have any facilities, so it would have had to do things from scratch, but we do not have the same problem. The facilities are already being used, and those that will come along—such as the velodrome and the indoor sports arena—are part of the national and regional sports facilities strategy. Plans were already in place to progress those, and we expect those plans to be followed through.
The bill includes street trading and advertising restrictions. It deals with street trading that is described as
The meaning of "vicinity" will be defined in the regulations that are brought forward closer to the games. I understood that there would be restrictions on both advertising and street trading in the vicinity of the games—I was not aware that a major difference was involved. Which part of the bill are you looking at?
I am reading what the Scottish Parliament information centre briefing says about sections 10 to 16 of the bill. In fairness, it quotes from a Commonwealth Games Federation manual, which talks about
A vicinity and an immediate precinct are one and the same thing. The vicinity will be determined by the nature of the venue and the event that is taking place.
Okay.
The number will be determined closer to the games. Most enforcement officers will be in and around Glasgow, as that is where most of the events will take place. It will be the organising committee that will determine how many are required to police the vicinities in which events are taking place. Resources have been set aside in the workforce planning process to cover the matter. However, it is difficult to say at this point exactly how many officers will be recruited.
Is it correct that the current street trading restrictions are largely enforced by police officers? Is checking whether people have licences or are illegal street traders a matter for police officers?
I think that the offences will go a bit beyond street trading offences. Essentially, trading standards officers, supported by the police as required when enforcement powers under the bill are being used, will deal with that. It will be a case of using the resources in Glasgow and working with the organising committee and the local authorities to ensure that there are sufficient people to deal with such matters during the games.
So there will be extra enforcement officers rather than equivalent enforcement officers.
If extra officers are required, they will have to be put in place.
Obviously, licensed street traders operate in Glasgow at the moment. They have licences from Glasgow City Council for the sale of paraphernalia associated with sporting events and other activities. Is it intended that applications from those existing licensed street traders will be given preference under the arrangements to license the sale of games merchandise? Indeed, will they be able to apply for such licences or is it intended to recruit a separate army of traders and trading stalls, distinct from the people who currently do that job week in, week out?
It will be for the organising committee to decide how it wants to take that forward and how it wants to market and merchandise the games.
The projected revenues do not include any broadcast fees—sponsorship and the sale of television rights. Is that undertaken by the local organising committee, or is it a responsibility of the Commonwealth Games Federation?
It is my understanding that that is a responsibility of the Commonwealth Games Federation and that the federation will negotiate broadcasting rights.
Right. The budget breakdown says that the CGF contribution will be £31.4 million. Is that figure conditional on the revenues that the CGF derives from the sale of broadcast rights and other overarching sponsorship arrangements? Is it capped at £31.4 million so that, if the CGF sells the rights for more than that, the profit goes to it, not into the Glasgow pot?
My understanding is that that includes the broadcasting element. I am not aware of there being any cap from the CGF, but it and the organising committee will discuss that as they progress.
Is that £31.4 million a fixed and guaranteed figure from the CGF or is it variable dependent on the income that is generated?
I am not entirely sure about that point. We can clarify it and come back to you.
Right. It is an important element, because it is a significant part of the total budget and, as we know from analysis, the proceeds that were derived from the sale of TV rights for the Manchester games were significantly lower than projected. That is the case, is it not?
I am not entirely sure about that either, but it is a point that the organising committee will want to discuss with the CGF. The figure was increased following the evaluation commission's report, which suggested that the figure for broadcasting rights should be included in the income. I am happy to go back and clarify those points for you.
According to our briefing, Wildsmith and Bradfield's report for the Halifax Commonwealth games bid states:
That is absolutely correct. I need to find out for you exactly what the CGF contribution covers and how the estimate has been arrived at. We will come back to you on that point.
Okay.
I have two key points about transport issues and the transport plan that is to be created. First, what guarantees will we have in the plan on emergency access in and around Glasgow? Secondly, you mentioned Strathclyde partnership for transport, which is fine for transport within Glasgow, but in the build-up to and during the games, people will be coming from outside Glasgow. What plans are there for new projects? I am thinking about the M74 extension or any other projects that you might bring to our attention.
Emergency access will be dealt with as part of the transport plan. I expect the organising committee to work on that issue when it considers the plan and to carry out consultation to ensure that the emergency services are happy with the proposals. I guess that during the games we will have an operation centre. All the issues will have to be fitted together when the plan is being created.
I will follow up on a couple of questions that colleagues have asked, but I begin by congratulating everyone who was associated with the bid on their success in Sri Lanka.
The extension of the M74 is in the candidate city file as one of a number of projects to link parts of the city together that are being funded from outside the organising committee budget. The project was not an integral part of the bid, but it was referenced in the candidate city file.
So the understanding of the Commonwealth Games Federation in granting Glasgow the games was that the M74 extension would be delivered before the games.
Yes.
To return to the trading issues, some local authorities that might wish to host training camps are concerned that the ambush marketing and trading aspects of the bill will extend to them. Will those measures extend to such training camps?
The measures will extend only to sites that we regard or set out as venues. It would be difficult to designate every single sporting ground or facility in Scotland in that way. Again, it will be for the organising committee to determine which sites it wants to cover in the regulations. It would be impractical to expect every single training camp to be covered, because some will be used at different times and that might place an onerous requirement on venues that would prevent them from engaging with teams.
But venues that are used for the games and that are outwith Glasgow will be covered by the measures.
Absolutely—the venues will be covered. For example, the site at Barry Buddon where the shooting will be held will be classed as a games venue.
On the announcement of the successful bid for the games, Glasgow, the Government and the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland had to sign a contract with the Commonwealth Games Federation. I presume that the federation was at that point aware that the bill was about to come into existence and that it was broadly happy with what was to be included in the bill.
The Commonwealth Games Federation was involved in the consultation, although it did not submit any formal response to it. We intend to continue discussions with the federation as we go through the process, so that any issues are brought to our attention at the earliest opportunity.
I have questions on the concerns about ticket touting. There are two aspects to that. Fines of up to £5,000 will be put in place for the resale of tickets, but that is in some ways a rearguard action. What safeguards are there to ensure that, in the initial sale of tickets, tickets go from the centre down to communities and overseas visitors who have come over for the games, rather than into the hands of people who advance structurally the cause of ticket touting on a wide scale? What checks and balance have you put in place for the initial sale of tickets? Are you happy with the financial penalties for the resale of tickets? Will clamping down on the resale of tickets in the vicinity of the venues be the job of enforcement officers? Will they issue on-the-spot fines? Will the police be involved? I would appreciate a bit more detail on that.
I expect that the organising committee will set out its own ticketing policy, which will address some of the concerns that you are raising. We want to ensure that the games are open and accessible to as many people in the country and from around the Commonwealth as possible. The organising committee will set out its policy, which will make clear how best to achieve that.
Let us imagine the hypothetical situation that the face value of a ticket spiralled because a home nation athlete or swimmer got to the final of an event. Suddenly, a £15 ticket might be worth five, six or seven times that. If someone was found trying to resell such tickets before an event, what powers would the enforcement officer have to act against that individual?
The enforcement officers would work with the police, who could arrest that individual.
So, the enforcement officer would alert the police to the matter and the police would come along and make the arrest.
The enforcement officer would gather the evidence and work with the police, who would have the power of arrest.
Will you be able to do anything about touts selling tickets on the internet, for example on eBay?
There is a power in the bill to deal with that. The detail will be set out in regulations, because it will develop over time.
What steps have been taken to ensure that tickets are affordable for people in Glasgow and the surrounding communities?
Again, the ticketing policy will set all that out. The numbers attending each event have been worked out. The candidate city file sets out that the tickets should be affordable. Tickets for different events will be tiered. The ticket pricing is based on the price of tickets for events that are currently held in Glasgow and Scotland.
Sporting events?
Sporting and other events.
I want to return to street trading. The games will focus on sporting excellence, so health promotion will be important. Will any steps be taken in conjunction with Glasgow City Council and others to ensure that there are no burger vans selling greasy burgers outside the stadiums? Glasgow City Council is trying to promote health messages to school children, but it is also giving street trading licences to people to park vans outside schools to sell burgers to the kids who nip out at lunch time. What steps are being taken to ensure that there is joined-up thinking in that regard?
The organising committee will control who can sell what outside each venue. You are right that health promotion will be part of the legacy. One would expect that the policy that is being developed in partnership by the Government, the city council, the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland and the organising committee will ensure that those messages come through from the games.
We were delighted when we learned that the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Bill was going to remain on the agenda; if the result in Sri Lanka had been wrong, the bill would have been scrubbed. It made everybody's day when the announcement came through. I was struck by some of the discussion about the success of the bid and its importance for Scotland. There was a successful games in Manchester recently. How closely have you worked with Manchester on these issues, given the similarity in population and nature of the two cities? Is there close, on-going work with Manchester on the lessons learned from its experience?
Absolutely. There has already been a lot of engagement with Manchester. I went down there with representatives of Glasgow City Council to talk with the people who were involved with the Manchester games from an early stage. We have had regular discussions with them, as well as with people from Melbourne. Lessons will be learned as we go through to 2014, especially from London as it goes through the experience on a larger scale, and from Delhi's experience in 2010.
Is Manchester tracking the legacy claims? Obviously, Manchester can provide a lot of useful information about how to prepare for the games, but has it been tracking the consequences of the games? Can we learn from that so that we get things right during our preparation?
Certainly, work has been done on the lessons learned and the benefits that have come from the Manchester games, particularly on the regeneration side of things. Reports have been published on that. I am not entirely sure what work is still being done, but I imagine that figures will be coming out indicating the number of visitors and businesses that have come to the city and how much of that is as a result of the games. It is five years since the Manchester games, and it is reckoned that the biggest impact on a host city comes three years later—that was the case with Barcelona. What is important is how we work during that period to maximise the impact.
On internet ticket touting, I appreciate that you might not want to give away your tactics, but I would be interested to hear more about any co-operation that you have had with authorities or police in other jurisdictions. What is your attitude to tackling what is in effect an international problem?
We can prosecute for offences that take place outwith Scotland, as long as we can get the people back into Scotland to be prosecuted. We are working with the UK Government to ensure that measures are in place throughout the UK. We have had and are continuing to have discussions to ensure that we can control internet ticket touting as much as we can.
We have now concluded our questions to the witnesses. We thank you for your attendance and look forward to working with you to make a success of the Commonwealth games. We expect responses to some of the questions that we raised, particularly about how robust the budget figures are and about the TV rights. I presume that we will get that in writing.
We will get that information back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you for your attendance.
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