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Adjournment debate on Thursday, 24 April 2008, in the House of Commons, led by John Whittingdale. The answering member was Gerry Sutcliffe.

Ticket Touting

Westminster hall debate on a motion for the adjournment on ticket touting. (Relevant documents: Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee second report of session 2007-08, HC 202, and the Government's response, Cm 7346.)

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
474 c499-546WH 
Session
2007-08
Department
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Related items
Proceeding contributions
John Whittingdale | 474 c499WH (Link to this contribution) I am pleased that we have the opportunity to debate the Select Committee report on ticket touting. I...
Show all contributions (95)
Paul Farrelly | 474 c527-9WH (Link to this contribution) I suggest that the hon. Gentleman looks carefully at some of Mr. Goldsmith's evidence about eBay. Th...
Philip Davies | 474 c533WH (Link to this contribution) I have a lot of sympathy with that view, but will the hon. Gentleman recognise that if some sporting...
Joan Walley | 474 c529-30WH (Link to this contribution) It is a great privilege to take part in a parliamentary debate with a ringside seat as a spectator o...
Lord Foster of Bath | 474 c530-3WH (Link to this contribution) I am delighted to follow the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, North (Joan Walley). Earlier in the deb...
Lord Foster of Bath | 474 c533WH (Link to this contribution) Given that time is tight, I do not want to go too far down that road, but if I had more time, I woul...
Philip Davies | 474 c514WH (Link to this contribution) That is self-evident, but I do not see that it detracts from the main point. The point is whether or...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c514WH (Link to this contribution) We have traded many hypothetical examples in our discussions on economic philosophy in Committee sit...
Philip Davies | 474 c512-3WH (Link to this contribution) As the Select Committee Chairman made clear at the start of the debate, many events do make such spe...
John Robertson | 474 c513WH (Link to this contribution) I wonder whether those matters would end up in court if the law were less ambiguous and we had a def...
Philip Davies | 474 c513WH (Link to this contribution) No, I certainly do not. I shall deal with this in more detail later, but I shall deal with the hon. ...
Tobias Ellwood | 474 c510WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has raised this example, and it is worth work-shopping it a little, if I can use ...
John Robertson | 474 c510-2WH (Link to this contribution) I will come to the Government's place in this a few pages further on in my speech. I hope that I can...
Philip Davies | 474 c512WH (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Glasgow, North-West (John Robertson). I disagree with...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c512WH (Link to this contribution) If there are conditions on the purchase of a ticket, is it not important that the organisation that ...
Lord Foster of Bath | 474 c513WH (Link to this contribution) Often a house is purchased with conditions attached, particularly with respect to leasehold. If the ...
Philip Davies | 474 c514WH (Link to this contribution) I do not quite follow the hon. Gentleman's analogy. I am talking about the principle of whether or n...
John Whittingdale | 474 c499WH (Link to this contribution) That is obviously my hon. Friend's view. That market functions because it puts people who own a com...
John Whittingdale | 474 c499-500WH (Link to this contribution) I sympathise with you, Mr. Weir, as I frequently have to reprimand the hon. Member for Newcastle-und...
Speaker | 474 c499WH (Link to this contribution) Order. I remind hon. Members that jackets cannot be removed in the Chamber.
John Whittingdale | 474 c501-3WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is undoubtedly right. That is another valuable opportunity for sporting bodies to...
Lord Foster of Bath | 474 c501WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman rightly gives a long list of organisers and their reasons for wanting a maintaine...
John Whittingdale | 474 c503WH (Link to this contribution) We are much further forward. There has been an exchange between the Association of Secondary Ticket ...
Tobias Ellwood | 474 c503WH (Link to this contribution) Before my hon. Friend finishes his point, the summary of the report mentions the production of model...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c503WH (Link to this contribution) I spoke to John Fingleton from the OFT prior to the debate. He told me that discussions are ongoing ...
John Whittingdale | 474 c503WH (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Minister, but that has been the position for the last year or so. I do not quit...
John Robertson | 474 c507WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes a fair point, but I must confess that I had not thought about it. I shall p...
Nigel Evans | 474 c507WH (Link to this contribution) I do not discount what the hon. Gentleman says about polls showing that the public are against ticke...
John Robertson | 474 c506WH (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Weir. I congratulate the Select Committee and...
John Whittingdale | 474 c504-5WH (Link to this contribution) That is interesting, because I do not think that the response quite says that. It says that "““some ...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c504WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman will see in our response that we are formulating a policy for sporting events and...
John Whittingdale | 474 c503-4WH (Link to this contribution) I hope that ““very shortly”” will actually prove to mean shortly. Up to this point, there has been ...
Tobias Ellwood | 474 c503WH (Link to this contribution) We can rejoice that there has been an announcement because there was a commitment in the 1997 Labour...
Joan Walley | 474 c507WH (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that Robbie Williams is where he is today because of the rich cultural lif...
John Robertson | 474 c509WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is absolutely correct, and it is hoped that that happened in this case. Unfortunately...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c509WH (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that it is also quite possible that the person who bought the tickets at t...
John Robertson | 474 c510WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman misunderstood what I was saying about primary sellers. I am saying that they are ...
Tobias Ellwood | 474 c509WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman suggests that there is an obligation on the primary seller to take responsibility...
John Robertson | 474 c508-9WH (Link to this contribution) There are many clubs and pubs in my hon. Friend's constituency, as well. I used to be a BT engineer,...
John Robertson | 474 c509WH (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for that, but the primary sellers are going down that road themselves and...
Lord Foster of Bath | 474 c509WH (Link to this contribution) I have a lot of sympathy for the direction in which the hon. Gentleman is travelling, but would he a...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c508WH (Link to this contribution) May I add the name of Newcastle-under-Lyme to this debate, where there are also many Robbie Williams...
John Robertson | 474 c507WH (Link to this contribution) I have visited Stoke-on-Trent many times, but I might have missed that rich culture—in those days, w...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c546WH (Link to this contribution) I shall not make any rash decisions, but look at what is going on in the world—in Australia and othe...
Philip Davies | 474 c546WH (Link to this contribution) I hope that the Minister will tread carefully and take note of one of the points that we made in the...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c546WH (Link to this contribution) They will consider the principles for both, which is what we asked the OFT to do. In addition, I sha...
Tobias Ellwood | 474 c545WH (Link to this contribution) Will the OFT guidelines, for which we are waiting with anticipation, focus on the primary or seconda...
Philip Davies | 474 c543WH (Link to this contribution) I do not think that I understand the Government's position. They say, and I think the Minister has j...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c543-4WH (Link to this contribution) Again, I shall come to why we think that it is important to protect many national sporting events in...
John Whittingdale | 474 c544WH (Link to this contribution) The Minister has spoken about the crown jewels in the broadcasting legislation, but they are all spo...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c544-5WH (Link to this contribution) We will discuss this in the future, but live free concerts and major international cultural occasion...
John Whittingdale | 474 c545WH (Link to this contribution) It might help the Minister if I remind him that when Mr. Fingleton gave evidence to us in response t...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c545WH (Link to this contribution) I hear what the hon. Gentleman is saying. Both he and I would encourage Mr. Fingleton to—
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c543WH (Link to this contribution) I agree wholeheartedly. I made the point about STAR because it is the organisation that DCMS and the...
Lord Foster of Bath | 474 c543WH (Link to this contribution) I apologise for interrupting the Minister, but will he explain why he is talking only of STAR and no...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c542-3WH (Link to this contribution) I agree wholeheartedly that the focus should be on the consumer and what is to the consumer's advant...
Lord Foster of Bath | 474 c542WH (Link to this contribution) I am pleased that the Minister is focusing on the issue of innovative approaches. Where there are pr...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c540-2WH (Link to this contribution) I apologise to the Select Committee Chairman for the time that it took the Government to respond to ...
Tobias Ellwood | 474 c540WH (Link to this contribution) I politely draw the Minister's attention to the fact that the Committee hearings took place on 26 Ju...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c540WH (Link to this contribution) The name of my right hon. Friend the Member for Barking (Margaret Hodge) has been taken in vain a co...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c540WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a fair point. Clearly, the marketplace is changing. As the Minister responsible...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c540WH (Link to this contribution) I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c539WH (Link to this contribution) I shall finish my point and then give way. I can reassure the House and the Committee that the Gove...
Tobias Ellwood | 474 c537-9WH (Link to this contribution) How often have we heard that? I hope that we will see the voluntary code shortly. I started by talk...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c539WH (Link to this contribution) I welcome you to the Chair this afternoon, Mr. Weir, and add my congratulations to the hon. Member f...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c533WH (Link to this contribution) We learned, though evidence given to us, that representatives of the secondary market, apart from eB...
Lord Foster of Bath | 474 c533-4WH (Link to this contribution) I hear what the hon. Gentleman says, but the secondary market is an important part of the market. Th...
Tobias Ellwood | 474 c534-7WH (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to participate in the debate. I begin, as others have done, by congratulating the C...
John Whittingdale | 474 c515WH (Link to this contribution) On a point of information, I had the privilege of attending the Led Zeppelin concert, and I should p...
Philip Davies | 474 c515-6WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend's intervention is incredibly helpful. I will come to the points that he makes in a bi...
Philip Davies | 474 c514-5WH (Link to this contribution) I do not agree with the hon. Gentleman, and in a few moments I will explain why. There are some myth...
Philip Davies | 474 c514WH (Link to this contribution) I will give way to the hon. Gentleman, but I also want to give other people the opportunity to speak...
John Robertson | 474 c514WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is being very generous. I understand where he is coming from with his house analo...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c516WH (Link to this contribution) In that particular case, the hon. Gentleman has half an intention of going to the match. What about ...
Philip Davies | 474 c517-8WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is entirely wrong to say that such people are defrauding the public. They are off...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c518WH (Link to this contribution) Saying that tickets are ““given away to other people”” demeans the efforts of the RFU and other spor...
Philip Davies | 474 c518-9WH (Link to this contribution) That is perfectly laudable, but if I happen to be a genuine rugby union fan who does not fall into t...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c519WH (Link to this contribution) The people whom the hon. Gentleman mentions could join the England rugby supporters club.
John Robertson | 474 c517WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman totally misses the point. When someone buys a ticket for an event, but suddenly f...
Philip Davies | 474 c516-7WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman misses the point. If we have a blanket ban on the secondary market and on ticket ...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c525-6WH (Link to this contribution) I shall answer that head-on by saying that there were issues for small booksellers then. But if the ...
Philip Davies | 474 c525WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman used banking as an analogy, but would he not agree that a better analogy is the n...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c521-5WH (Link to this contribution) I shall take my reprimands like a boy. When it came to this report, the hon. Member for Maldon and ...
Philip Davies | 474 c519-20WH (Link to this contribution) Indeed, but we are being told that the aim is to protect the ordinary supporter who wants to buy a t...
Gerry Sutcliffe | 474 c520WH (Link to this contribution) Just for the record, my right hon. Friend the Minister of State was a Trade and Industry Minister at...
Philip Davies | 474 c521WH (Link to this contribution) That is true, of course, but it is a novel concept that a Minister should have a particular view one...
Philip Davies | 474 c527WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman ought to qualify his remarks slightly. Internet companies such as Seatwave, eBay ...
Philip Davies | 474 c526WH (Link to this contribution) The OFT will stand up for consumers, and thank goodness it does. That is why it has concluded that t...
Paul Farrelly | 474 c526-7WH (Link to this contribution) I hope that hon. Members will bear with me in this game of table tennis across the Chamber. The OFT...
Subjects
Entertainments Internet Touting Tickets
Link
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