Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)

My Lords, while I acknowledge the concerns that the noble Lord, Lord Addington, raised, I must agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, that this is not the Bill for those concerns. We have got to be cautious in ensuring that the focus of the Bill remains squarely on football governance and not introduce far-reaching regulations on other matters—particularly in relation to gambling, where it risks duplicating or cutting across the work of the Gambling Commission, the Advertising Standards Authority and many other regulators that look into this thorny question and provide useful research and pointers to both the gambling industry and to those who want to tackle the harms that can be associated with it. At present, there are no prohibitions concerning the types of companies from which clubs may accept advertising or sponsorship in this Bill. The noble Lord, Lord Addington, in setting out the case for his amendments, showed they were very sweeping. He wants to get rid of it entirely from football, so he has proposed some very sweeping amendments on this issue. It also cuts against the work, which the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor of Bolton, pointed out, that many individual clubs are already undertaking to ensure that what they do in this regard is done responsibly in the face of their fans. Therefore, given the broader implications of the noble Lord’s amendments and the fact that this Bill was never intended to address complicated issues such as this, I do not think we should be taking it in this direction. If the noble Lord does divide on his amendments, we will not be supporting them.