SAFE STANDING AND THE FOOTBALL SPECTATORS BILL

Early day motion 239, tabled 15 October 2001 by Roger Godsiff (Labour). Signed by 81 members.

That this House welcomes the introduction before Parliament of the Football Spectators Bill; that the second reading of the bill will take place on Friday, 2nd November; believes fundamentally that football clubs should have the choice in the construction of new stands or stadia to incorporate areas of safe standing; supports the central proposal of the bill which removes from the Secretary of State, for Culture, Media and Sport the power to designate stadia as all-seater, delegating that decision to clubs, supports and local authorities; agrees with the Prime Minister that: 'While safety must always be the number-one criterion, there is no reason to ignore technological improvements made since (Lord Justice) Taylor reported, which might now allow for safe standing'; observes that modern stadia in Germany allow supporters to stand both safely and legitimately without any inconvenience to seated spectators in other parts of the ground; and further observes that every week tens of thousands of people in the United Kingdom stand at games of rugby union and rugby league, horseracing and pop concerts and that there are more football matches played in grounds with legitimate standing than are played in all-seater stadia.

Signatures by party: Labour 47, Liberal Democrat 14, Conservative 8, DUP 4, Labour/Co-operative 4, UUP 4.