Health and Sport Committee
Meeting date: Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Official Report
458KB pdf
London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Bill
Good morning, and welcome to the sixth meeting of the Health and Sport Committee in the fourth session of the Scottish Parliament. I remind members and the public who are present to turn off all mobile phones and BlackBerrys.
The first item on our agenda is to take evidence on the legislative consent memorandum LCM(S4) 2.1 on the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Bill, which is United Kingdom Parliament legislation. As the bill makes provisions for purposes that lie within the competence of the Scottish Parliament or that will alter that legislative competence or the executive competence of the Scottish ministers, a legislative consent memorandum has been lodged by the Scottish Government as required by the standing orders.
I welcome Michael Matheson on his first appearance at the Health and Sport Committee in his role as Minister for Public Health. I also welcome Odette Burgess, senior policy officer in the games delivery team, and Greig Walker, solicitor in the economy and transport division of the Scottish Government. I invite the minister to make an opening statement.
Thank you, convener. It is nice to be back at the committee, albeit at the other end of the table.
The business before us is the proposal for a legislative consent motion on proposed changes to the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 that are before the UK Parliament. The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Bill was introduced at Westminster on 16 March and is a relatively small and technical bill. As its title suggests, the bill seeks to amend the provisions of the 2006 act. The bill contains only limited provisions that concern powers in the 2006 act on advertising and street trading within the vicinity of the games’ venues, ticket touting and traffic management.
The Scottish Parliament needs to take a view on these proposals as Hampden Park stadium in Glasgow will host eight men’s and women’s Olympic football matches. Issues of devolved competence come into play as a result. The traffic management provisions of the bill expand the powers to impose traffic restrictions quickly in response to sudden or unforeseen requirements, but they do not extend to Scotland. However, Glasgow City Council still has a range of powers that are available to local authorities under the usual traffic legislation. We understand that the Olympic Development Authority has worked with Glasgow City Council and has provided the council with an assessment of how it can deliver what is required within the current legislative framework and that the council has now developed a plan to manage traffic movement around the city during the games.
The proposed changes to the advertising and street trading provisions are concerned with parliamentary procedure for regulation and enforcement. Under the 2006 act, advertising and street trading regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure. A change is proposed to make only the first regulation subject to the affirmative procedure, which will allow for any unforeseen circumstances that may necessitate a last-minute change—for example, if an existing venue were to become unusable. That is consistent with the approach adopted by the Scottish Parliament for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Act 2008.
For England and Wales, the bill reverses a requirement of the 2006 act that articles that infringe the advertising and street-trading provisions, if seized by enforcement officers, must be delivered to the police. Infringing articles in England and Wales will therefore always be dealt with by enforcement officers in accordance with the new statutory rules for the handling and return of infringing articles.
Under the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Act 2008, however, there is flexibility for police and enforcement officers to agree enforcement practice between themselves. There is no statutory requirement for one authority to hand over property to the other. After consulting the Scottish police and the Crown Office, the Scottish Government supported an amendment to the bill to reflect the 2014 games position for the 2012 games. The amendment was agreed by the United Kingdom Parliament on 8 September and is now part of the bill.
The bill also proposes an increase in fines for ticket touting offences from £5,000 to £20,000. The changes were proposed at the recommendation of the Metropolitan Police as a more effective deterrent in response to organised ticket touting by criminal gangs. It is not normal practice for summary courts in Scotland to be able to impose such high penalties, but the power exists for them to impose maximum fines of up to £50,000 when the offence is serious enough to justify such a penalty. Given the evidence provided, we are satisfied that an exceptional summary maximum penalty of £20,000 can be justified for the offence in question.
The London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (Amendment) Bill has now passed its report and third reading stages in the House of Commons and was formally introduced into the House of Lords on Monday 12 September. We are advised that the second reading in the Lords will take place on 3 October. I therefore recommend that the committee approves the motion.
I thank the minister. Mary Scanlon has a question.
Will the measures outlined today remain in place for the Commonwealth games in Glasgow in 2014?
No, the separate legislation that I referred to in my comments—the Glasgow Commonwealth Games Act 2008—will apply to those games.
As there are no other questions, I thank the minister and his officials for their evidence.