Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour). It was answered on Thursday, 5 July 2007.

Ticket Touts

Question: My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply. He will appreciate that it will come as a disappointment to sports governing bodies and arts organisations which find that the activities of ticket touts are disruptive to their business and expensive to control. They cause disorder in the streets and make it impossible to give a decent deal to fans, who are ripped off by the touts. Is my noble friend aware that the sort of problems we experience at Cardiff, where we may have a football match one week, which is controlled by the legislation on touting, but a rugby match or concert the following week, which is not controlled, are extraordinarily difficult to deal with? The problems will be multiplied when the Olympics come, with venues used for Olympics events, such as Lords for archery and the test match the following week. How can we get some consistency in the way in which ticket touting is dealt with?

Answer: My Lords, as I indicated in my original Answer, the major inconsistency to which my noble friend refers is with football. Of course, under the Public Order Acts, we have restrictions on football ticket sales in order to maintain the necessary segregation of fans, the absence of which has in the past caused mayhem at some football occasions. In general terms, my noble friend will recognise that there are two sides to the story of the resale of tickets. Certainly, sports organisations and organisations such as his own at the Millennium Stadium resent the profit taken by some people who sell tickets on for that purpose. But a great deal of the resale of tickets is by ordinary members of the public who cannot get to an event to which they intended to go. It would be very difficult to legislate against that resale.

Secondary information