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Ticket Touting

The hon. Gentleman misses the point. If we have a blanket ban on the secondary market and on ticket touting generally, everybody will be caught up. All those who buy a ticket with the genuine intention of going but do not go, for whatever reason—because they subsequently find that they cannot go due to illness or a work commitment; or because they want to sell the ticket on to somebody at a profit later on and had not realised that such an opportunity would arise at the time—would be caught up in this blanket ban of ticket touting. That is the problem with the legislation on this issue. The hon. Member for Glasgow, North-West said that people want a ban on ticket touting, but I think that it depends on the question they are asked. I am sure that if one asks, ““Do you think that dirty, nasty, parasitical ticket touts should be able to make a huge profit from selling on tickets, which will prevent other people from going?””, the answer will probably be, ““That is outrageous and we should stop it at once.”” But if one asks, ““Do you think that if you buy a ticket for an event, but then find that you can't go, you should be allowed to sell your ticket to someone else?””, one would get a different answer altogether. That has already happened: those surveys have taken place, and the most agreed with statement in opinion polls was:"““If I had a ticket to a sporting event, concert or other event that I could no longer use, then I should be allowed to re-sell it.””" More than 80 per cent. of the public agreed with that statement. I am not surprised by that, as it is a perfectly reasonable statement to agree with. People's attitude to ticket touting depends very much on how the question is framed; one can get the answer that one wants. It is worth pointing out that more than half the people polled had tried to get tickets to an event but had found that it was sold out before they could buy one. The secondary market therefore gives them the only opportunity to attend. Half of people who wanted to go to an event before it was sold out did not know where to go or how to purchase a ticket from that moment in time. The secondary market provides a great service to members of the general public who are trying to access events, and it works to the benefit of consumers, on the whole, rather than against them.