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Sporting Events Bill [HL]: HL Bill 3 of 2026–27

Approximate read time: 35 minutes

The government argues having a legislative framework in place would enable more efficient event delivery and strengthen the UK’s ability to bid for international competitions by meeting organisers’ requirements without the need for new primary legislation each time. The government intends to use the framework to support the delivery of the EURO 2028 men’s football championships being hosted by the UK and Ireland in 2028.

The bill would create a sporting events framework that could be applied to specific events by secondary legislation. The framework would create a UK-wide offence of ticket touting, backed by criminal penalties and civil financial penalties. It would also introduce restrictions on advertising and trading in designated zones around venues, with offences for unauthorised activity and powers to issue fixed penalties. The framework would also prohibit “unauthorised association”, preventing businesses from implying a commercial link with an event without permission, enforceable through civil court action. In addition, for England, transport provisions would require a transport plan to be prepared and would create traffic management powers to implement it. The framework would be flexible, allowing ministers to choose which elements to apply to each event. The secretary of state or the devolved governments could apply the ticket touting provisions, the advertising provisions or the trading provisions to a sporting event. Only the secretary of state could make regulations to apply the unauthorised association provisions or the transport provisions.

The bill would also provide the UK government, Scottish government and Northern Ireland executive with powers to offer financial assistance to support major sporting events and related legacy or social impact initiatives. 

Sports bodies have welcomed the bill, highlighting its potential to improve bid competitiveness and protect fans from ticket touting.

Image by CamiloCote on Pixabay.