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Mr. David Mellor (Putney): Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Mr. Mellor: Yes, as it happens, on that point.
I am stimulated to say that I am glad that at long last, one hour and 10 minutes after it began, the debate is arriving at football. So far, we might have been forgiven for not realising that we are on the eve of the biggest sporting event to be held in this country for 30 years.
However, it is in no spirit of animus that I intervene on the hon. Gentleman. By all means let him say, with reference to those three new stadiums, that the football clubs concerned benefited from consultations with their Labour councils; but if we are to make such points, can we please deal with the subject properly? What about the councils at Portsmouth and Southampton, where clubs with derelict grounds wish to rebuild them? And what about what happened at Southend? I am not making a party point, because I cannot remember which party controls Southend, where--
Madam Deputy Speaker:
Order. I am afraid that the right hon. and learned Gentleman is now beginning to make a speech. He will have to contain himself until his turn comes.
Mr. Mellor:
I shall, Madam Deputy Speaker.
The hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde(Mr. Pendry) knows the point that I am making--
Madam Deputy Speaker:
Order. I am sorry, but the right hon. Gentleman must resume his seat now.
Mr. Pendry:
I accept what you say, of course, Madam Deputy Speaker, but the right hon. and learned Gentleman was attempting to make a serious point, which I have covered before, and it concerns us. I must tell him that the councils that he mentioned are, of course, Conservative councils which have blocked the developments--but there is a bigger and much more important point than a party political point to be made on the subject.
Hon. Members:
Southampton is Labour.
Mr. Joseph Ashton (Bassetlaw):
The development would be outside the city of Southampton.
Mr. Pendry:
I do not wish to be diverted, although I would willingly engage in that conversation with the right hon. and learned Member for Putney (Mr. Mellor), a former Minister, who, I must say, was so important to football when he was in office. I gave way to the right
May I return to that most important subject--[Interruption.] I ask my hon. Friend the Member for Bassetlaw (Mr. Ashton) to listen too. I know that he will attempt to catch your eye later, Madam Deputy Speaker. He knows his stuff, but I want to talk about the disabled groups now, because they are very important, and clearly they have not been included in the Minister's thinking.
As I was saying, those groups have produced some of our finest international sportsmen and sportswomen, whose achievements were not mentioned at all in "Raising the Game". Local government may have had one reference, but there was no mention at all of our disabled sports people. They are athletes of whom the nation should be proud, and I hope that they repeat their successes in this year's paralympic games. I shall certainly be cheering them on in Atlanta.
If the Minister were to ask those people, they would tell him of the need to appoint a representative on the United Kingdom Sports Council. He could assist in doing that, but he has chosen not to do so. There is also the British Sports Forum. I understand that the British Paralympic Association has written to the forum asking to be represented, but has been rejected. Perhaps the Minister could intervene to find out why it has been excluded. I understand that as yet he has failed to do so.
The two omissions that I have mentioned are the two clearest omissions from the original document. I would welcome assurances from the Minister this morning that he has fully involved both the disabled groups and the local authority associations in the revised edition of "Raising the Game" that we expect. In all likelihood, he will not be able to give those assurances, because so far as I am aware there have been no consultations whatever between him and either local authority associations or disabled groups. If that is so, it is disgraceful.
If someone had consulted the disabled groups, it would have saved the Government the embarrassment of producing the "Practical Guide for Disabled People", just published by the Department of Social Security, which contains totally incorrect information about the governing bodies of disabled sport.
The Minister will be aware that the Labour party has produced a blueprint showing how we envisage the new British academy of sport, which has already been mentioned by the hon. Member for Blackpool, South. Our blueprint was the result of a detailed consultation process with all the major organisations in British sport, and was launched last month to much acclaim from the world of sport.
We see a central academy providing generic services such as sports medicine and science, skill co-ordination, research and development, and so on. It would co-ordinate the activities of an enhanced network of services, focusing on the existing national centres of excellence.
Of course, as the Minister knows, the idea of a British academy was contained in the Labour Government's White Paper, so at least the principle is not a party issue. The Opposition recognise that there is no point in ignoring the achievements of what is already in place. We need to
develop an integrated approach, and we can build on the strengths of the existing structure, and involve other areas of excellence.
The Minister could well join Steve Cram, the former world distance record holder, who does not apologise for putting his name to the idea, and Michael Whittingham, the British athletics coach, as well as the National Coaching Foundation, the Institute of Professional Sport, the Physical Education Association, the Central Council of Physical Recreation, the Association of Metropolitan Authorities, the British Paralympic Association, and many others. On the day of our launch, we heard that the Minister was in line with our proposals, and he would have us believe that he has supported a similar proposal all along. He said so again this morning.
I shall quote from the Minister's article in The Daily Telegraph of 5 December last year, in which he outlined his vision of a single-site academy:
There was no mention at all of an enhanced network of activities, but that is hardly surprising. A spanking brand new academy with high-tech facilities and all mod cons, built on a green-field site of up to 300 acres, with full-time accommodation for up to 1,000 athletes and coaches, would take all of the £100 million allocated.
The Minister was clearly setting out his own vision of the academy before the consultation. From our own wide consultation process we discovered that the main problem of the existing structure is the fact that the centres are disparate and their activities lack clear co-ordination.
Mr. Tony Banks:
Surely the academy does not have to be on a green-field site. There are many institutions that could be adapted to accommodate the sports academy. I believe that there is an excellent site in Redbridge, for example, for which proposals are being put forward. Perhaps my hon. Friend thinks that that would be a good idea.
Mr. Pendry:
My hon. Friend is right. The academy does not have to be on a green-field site, and we do not say that it should be. We are saying that other areas could be considered for the academy, which would be slimmed down compared with what the Minister set his heart on at the beginning.
We all want our teams and individual athletes to achieve Olympic gold and to win international tournaments, so the headquarters should co-ordinate the United Kingdom strategy for excellence. To my mind, the best way of achieving excellence is by producing a national strategy delivered locally.
The ball is firmly in the Minister's court. We know that he has received the responses to the consultation paper back from the Sports Council, but that up to now he has been reluctant to publish them. When they are published, we shall welcome that very much. As he knows, I have re-tabled some specific questions to him about the academy. Late last night he faxed me a letter, with which
I shall not bore the House--but it is clearly a bit of a whitewash. We shall return to the subject in the near future.
Of course we must produce athletes to win--but not to win at all costs. I am pleased that Diane Modahl has now been cleared completely, but her case highlighted public concern about the use of drugs in sport. Unfortunately, that subject is likely to feature on the agenda at the Olympics this summer. I was concerned to read recently that the number of sportsmen and women failing drugs tests carried out by the Sports Council this year had risen by 15 per cent. over previous years.
Back in 1988, the then Home Office Minister--the right hon. and learned Member for Grantham(Mr. Hogg)--committed the Government to bringing anabolic steroids within the remit of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, and the Minister gave the House an undertaking during the last sports debate that the Home Secretary would shortly bring that about. Shortly afterwards, I tabled a question to ask what had been done. The Minister again said that the Government would follow the advice of their advisory committee and would control steroids very soon. But nothing was done until April, when the Government announced that they were outlawing the supply--but not the use--of steroids. The House will want to know why the Government have done a U-turn, as that is extremely important.
The right hon. and learned Member for Putney said that he was surprised that the European championships had not been raised so far in the debate, but I now wish to refer to the tournament. We are on the brink of the greatest sporting event to be held in this country for30 years. The excitement generated by Euro 96 is palpable, and it is a great tribute to the perseverance of the football authorities, fans, the Football Trust, the police and local authorities that we are able to stage it at all, and their continuing hard work throughout the tournament will make Euro 96 the success it deserves to be.
The contrast between the efforts of those organisations and the neglect of the Government could not be greater. It is worth taking a few minutes to recall the lack of interest shown by the Government in the event right from the beginning. The Minister may recall that the launch of the bid for Euro 96 was held here in the House of Commons, shortly before the last general election. Because of the Government's lack of interest, it was left to me as the then chairman of the all-party football group to assist the FA in arranging for the then leader of the Labour party, the right hon. Neil Kinnock, to launch the bid with Sir Bert Millichip, Tom Finney and other football luminaries.
That was followed by the Open Goal conference in Birmingham in September 1994, organised by the shadow National Heritage team. Opposition Members were concerned that, two years after the bid was made, the Government were still not providing a strategic direction for the promotion of the tournament. The conference brought together for the first time the eight local authorities where matches were to be held, supporters groups, politicians from all parties, the FA, the Football Trust and all the other main players in the game--apart from the Government.
The lack of Government involvement in the championships cannot bode well for any future attempt by this country to host major sporting events, such as the
Olympic games or the World cup. The international community does not expect to see the host Government sitting on the sidelines doing nothing. As far as I am aware, the Secretary of State has met only once with representatives of the host cities to discuss their concerns about the championships. That was on 29 April this year--barely six weeks before the start of the tournament.
"The Academy will be situated on, say, a 200-300 acre, greenfield site. It could be anywhere in the country but it would probably be best if it was reasonably central geographically and easily accessible. There would be accommodation for some 500 top athletes and their coaches. These athletes and their coaches could live full time at the Academy".
I say to the Minister, out of thine own mouth will I judge thee.
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