Member

I know that DCMS has said that there should be a consultation exercise on this, which is separate from the work that we are doing on this Bill. It said that it would be in the autumn. We are very nearly at Christmas. I hope that the Minister can confirm that in the next few days the consultation exercise which was promised by this Government will be launched. I praise this Government for taking this forward and for stating in their manifesto that action would be taken on this. I hope that it will not be slipped many years into the future because, under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act it is illegal for any unauthorised platform to sell tickets for a football game. That worked very well for the London 2012 Olympic Games. I declare my interests there as in the register. It worked very well for football over the early years, but this has become an endemic problem in football, which needs to be tackled.