Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)

My Lords, I begin by congratulating the Minister, and welcoming her to her place. I was sadly not able to be there on Friday when she made her maiden speech in your Lordships’ House, but I have read it with pleasure and welcome her warmly to her position in DCMS. As the Minister set out in her maiden speech, she brings great international experience as well as great experience in Whitehall and Westminster to the work that she does, which is particularly pertinent for the topic today of international affairs. We all look very much forward to working with her. I am grateful to my noble friend Lord Johnson of Lainston for the way he introduced the debate today and thank him and all the members of your Lordships’ Committee on International Agreements for the detailed work they have done in scrutinising this proposal. I am very glad that the Government provided extra time for the committee to do its work; the very good and detailed contributions that we have had today reflect the careful thought that the committee and your Lordships’ House have brought to this matter. The manipulation of sports competitions is a very serious issue. The noble Lord, Lord Verdirame, was right when he said that this goes to the very heart of the fundamental British value of fair play. We heard very strong and moving speeches from the noble Lord, Lord Addington, the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and my noble friend Lord Moynihan about the integrity of sport and the impact that this has not just on current sportsmen and women but on young people we want to be encouraging to be more active and to represent their country on the international elite stage. We heard from a number of noble Lords about the close links between what some people might dismiss as “just a bit of gambling gone wrong” and serious organised crime: people trafficking, terrorism, illicit financing and so many other offences. So, it is absolutely right that this issue is being taken seriously and that we are working with international colleagues to tackle this transnational issue. As we have heard, and as the committee’s report says, the United Kingdom already has a good story to tell about this domestically. We already fulfil the requirements of the convention through, for instance, the work of the Gambling Commission, the sports betting intelligence unit and the Sports Betting Integrity Forum. We have some expertise that we can share with international partners. We have already learned lessons in tackling this. The ratification which all noble Lords have looked forward to today would formalise existing arrangements and solidify the commitments that we have already made on the international stage. That is reflected, as we have heard, by the evidence that the committee gathered from witnesses who appeared before it, who very much supported the UK’s ratification of this convention and highlighted the need for international co-operation to tackle this. However, as noble Lords from my noble friend Lord Johnson onwards have been at pains to point out, ratification alone is not a solution to this problem. My noble friend said that it must be seen as one part of a wider effort, and he is absolutely right. The noble Lord, Lord Addington, and my noble friend Lord Moynihan were right in pointing to the importance of international governing bodies of sports. Perhaps the Minister can say a bit about the discussions the department is already having with those governing bodies to make sure that they are doing what they ought to be doing to tackle this issue. My noble friend Lord Moynihan is right that we should be talking particularly to nations that want to host major international sporting events. The noble Lord, Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, whom we wish a speedy recovery, is right that this is about other jurisdictions well beyond Europe. We have some leverage when people are applying to host major sporting events. The decision today by World Athletics to award the 2029 world championships to Nairobi rather than London has disappointed many, including our new colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Khan of Tooting, and all those who worked on London’s bid. They were particularly dismayed because of Kenya’s current record, with 136 athletes currently serving doping bans. I do not know whether the Minister is able to say something on that specifically, but it would be interesting to hear about the Government’s work with host nations and international bodies that make these decisions. I will allow her to follow up the questions that noble Lords raised, rightly highlighting paragraphs 85 and 86 of the committee’s report, which deal with the reservation the Government intend to enter in respect of the convention’s jurisdictional requirements on Article 19(1)(d). The noble Lord, Lord Verdirame, unsurprisingly, was particularly forensic in his examination of the evidence given by DCMS and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on that. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hannay of Chiswick, for his keen interest in the policies of His Majesty’s Opposition and will arrange for him to be sent a copy of the report by my noble friend Lord Wolfson of Tredegar, which deals with this issue in detail. But he and other noble Lords will know that the way that convention prevents us from tackling serious crimes, such as people trafficking and cross-border criminality, is eroding trust—not just in this nation but in other member states of the Council of Europe—in the way it operates. We are not the only country looking at whether it can be reformed and brought back closer to the original intent of those who drafted it many years ago. If that is not possible, I do not think we will be the only member state looking at alternatives to it. But that is a debate for another day and I am grateful to all noble Lords who took part in this one.