Queen's Speech — Debate (5th Day)

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 7:38 pm on 25 November 2009.

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Photo of Lord Addington Lord Addington Spokesperson for Defence, Spokesperson for Culture, Media and Sport , Deputy Chief Whip 7:38, 25 November 2009

My Lords, I will be referring to the culture part of today's debate as I talk about matters to do primarily with sport. I hope that those noble Lords who have come to talk about economics will lend me an ear for a moment or two.

There are two issues on which I wish to comment. First, how will the Government react to what I think everyone will regard as good news about the Paralympics? Learning-disabled athletes will be back in the games after being left out following the appalling and unfortunate cheating by members of the Spanish basketball team who were non-learning-disabled athletes and who secured a gold medal. It may just be my sense of romance about sport, but I think that that was a violation of the spirit of sport greater than any drugs abuses.

I have a connection, which is now largely historical, with some of the organisations through the UK Sports Association for People with Learning Disability. We campaigned to get people with learning disabilities into the Paralympics. Now that the harsh punishment for those who were not guilty has been removed, will the Government ensure that that group receives access to funding and support to enable them to take a full and active part in the games? This time, as it is our games they are coming back to, we have a particular responsibility. Will we ensure that our teams at least are prepared properly to do justice to their being a part of the Paralympics? That is a big question for one of the biggest projects and one of the biggest parts of effectively reflating that region of the economy, and I hope that in the near future we will receive a good reply. I appreciate that the noble Lord, Lord Myners, may not be totally on top of that area.

Secondly, I draw attention to a commitment that the Government made in one of their Bills, the Flood and Water Management Bill. The people of Cumbria may have other ideas about its importance, but Clause 42 concerns concessionary charges for community sport and community groups. This is something of a saga in which, once again, I had a peripheral part, pointing out the way in which water charges, primarily, had been changed-that is, that flood water charges and drainage were to reflect the area of ground, not the rateable value within band width. That meant that we had some rather stunning hikes in price. I will do something that I never feel comfortable with: reading out a list of figures. A bowling club in Carlisle had a 1,300 per cent increase in its water charges. A Scout hut in Cheshire had a 1,407 per cent increase. A small Baptist church faced a 2,000 per cent increase. There was an increase of 4,770 per cent for a village hall in Cheshire from £54 to £2,580.

Think what that would do to a small group that uses that facility. Local sports clubs were finding themselves threatened with something that could totally destroy their financial base. Whether we like it or not, sports clubs are an important part of delivering huge parts of the Government's social agenda-volunteering, activity, et cetera.

The Government are doing something about that; I applaud them for that. Will the Government indicate the level of commitment in the inevitable series of trading in the wash-up period that is coming? Will we get the Bill through? Will we get this bit of the Bill through?

I have been asked to pose a series of other questions to the Government. Can we ensure that there is no great diversity between water company areas? I do not know whether the Government can answer that, but if there is great diversity across local leagues, we will effectively destroy the leagues, because clubs will have only so many resources with which to compete on even terms. The idea is to have even contests within sport-or at least as even as you can-to allow the marginal differences to come through. Will we do that? Will we try to ensure that that is kept?

It is also worthwhile that Parliament pays tribute to the people who led that charge home. It was an unusual group. It included the Scouting Association, not one that we had originally associated with militant attacks on Parliament, but it did it this time-beware those wearing woggles. The supporting cast were, predominantly, the Rugby Union and the Church of England. There is a triumvirate that I have not put together before. Others were involved, of course, but those were the three biggest groups.

Will the Minister say a word or two about how efficient lobbying of Parliament can point out where things have gone wrong within the system and encourage others to do so? Surely those who did that did Parliament and, indeed, society a service by getting involved to point out unintended consequences of something that Ofwat, in this case, thought was a good idea. It thought that it was fairer to charge for what people were doing, forgetting that you need a peripheral vision that takes into account what is going on outside your immediate area of concern. I hope that the Government will encourage all such groups to develop that peripheral vision to make sure that we do not damage the good.