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Lord Pannick (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 18 December 2024

Debate

Football Governance Bill [HL]

Contribution

My Lords, I think a very strong case has been made this afternoon by the noble Lords, Lord Bassam and Lord Scriven, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and my noble friend Lady Grey-Thompson to require the regulator to assess whether a prospective owner of a football club respects and promotes the protection of human rights and prevents modern slavery. I am very sympathetic to the principle. I am just concerned about the practicality. Is it really practical to expect that the regulator is going to have the expertise, time or ability to conduct a general assessment of whether a particular person—who may, for all I know, be based abroad—is generally respecting human rights and preventing modern slavery? This is going to take an enormous amount of time and money, and I fear that it would distract the regulator from the more day-to-day, prosaic functions that Parliament will be asking it to perform. I would be pleased to hear from the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, how this is going to work in practice, because I am very sceptical.

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