Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Lab)

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Addington, makes a good point about football clubs needing to be outgoing and outward looking, able to offer advice to other charities or organisations locally and to encourage football. The vast majority of clubs do that. Perhaps there is insufficient evidence about best practice or not enough sharing of it, but the vast majority of clubs have a good outreach programme, and that is much valued by local communities. I rise to say a few words about Amendments 151 and 165, which are about the corporate responsibility of clubs in general. The noble Lord touched on some ways in which they can have an impact. We have just talked about the environmental sustainability that is necessary, and the Minister has given reassurances on that point. I want to mention, in particular, the need for football clubs to increase diversity, include underrepresented groups and eliminate discrimination, which I am afraid exists in many areas of business, from boardrooms to employment records. Local football clubs have a big impact on their community and can lead the way in showing what can and should be done. We need to know what is happening in our clubs, and therefore a reporting mechanism on these areas would be important and of assistance. We have seen some changes, for example, in the gender diversity of people employed by football clubs. We see many more women taking up roles, but there is a long way to go. It would be good if we could encourage better governance at football club level on all these issues. I agree with what has been said about not having mission creep, and some of these areas are covered by parts of employment law, for example, but we have to look to the long term to improve the good governance of football clubs. Yes, we can encourage best practice, as the Minister said earlier, but there is more to do.