House of Lords
Tuesday, 9th July 2002.
The House met at half-past two of the clock: The LORD CHANCELLOR on the Woolsack.
Prayers—Read by the Lord Bishop of Hereford.
Tourism
Lord Luke asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What action they are taking to ensure that London is an effective gateway for tourism into the United Kingdom.
The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Baroness Blackstone): My Lords, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport promotes London as a gateway both via our sponsorship of the British Tourist Authority and via the grant that we give to the Greater London Authority. The Government require the BTA to attempt to increase the amount that overseas tourists spend outside London. Our agreement with the Greater London Authority stipulates that it must promote London as a gateway to the rest of the UK. The work is carried out on behalf of the GLA by the London Tourist Board.
Lord Luke: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for that reply. Will she encourage the agencies, including the ETC in its proposed new marketing role, to direct a much greater proportion of its available resources towards selling Britain as a package tour, with London as its focal point—bearing in mind that, as of 2000, some 80 per cent of overseas visitors to London never leave London except to go home?
Baroness Blackstone: Yes, my Lords, I will. It is vital that we encourage visitors to London to take a trip outside the city as well. Recent surveys suggest that many visitors who decide not to travel to the rest of the UK do so merely through lack of time. Many say that on a second visit to the UK they will set aside time to visit places outside London. The BTA is trying to encourage people to take packages involving particular types of trips: for example, a royal heritage trail all over the country, and even a "Harry Potter: discovering the magic of Britain" initiative.
Lord Harrison: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that one of the quickest ways to help the London tourism industry is to restore to the English Tourism Council, when it is reformed, the marketing function enjoyed by the three other home country tourist boards?
Baroness Blackstone: My Lords, I entirely accept what my noble friend says. Indeed, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State and the Minister for Tourism have been meeting with the
industry to examine the whole issue of how to restore to the ETC its marketing role, not just in terms of London but throughout the UK.
Viscount Falkland: My Lords, does the Minister agree that England is the natural place where people who come to London go—not necessarily Scotland; Scotland has its own gateways. London's brand image is very strong. Everyone in the world knows about London—and visitors come to London in vast numbers—but they do not necessarily know about England. Following on the previous question, how is the brand image of England to be improved and increased, so that people will be encouraged as a matter of course to travel from London to the rest of the English countryside and to English towns?
Baroness Blackstone: My Lords, the noble Viscount is right. Work must be done to make sure that people understand about the amazing, wonderful and rich sights to be found outside London. As I said in reply to the noble Lord, Lord Luke, the BTA is doing all that it can abroad to encourage visitors to come not merely to London but to other parts of the country through the kinds of packages I have described. Its target is to bring UK expenditure from incoming tourists outside London to at least 45 per cent of the total.
Lord St John of Bletso: My Lords, does the Minister agree that the current traffic gridlock in central London is a major negative factor in the promotion of London as the tourism gateway to the rest of the United Kingdom? Is the Minister aware of the growing suspicion that the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, is deliberately allowing massive and unco-ordinated roadworks in central London so as to justify the introduction of congestion charges next year?
Baroness Blackstone: My Lords, that is slightly wide of the Question. But having suffered this morning as a result of massive gridlock in London, I am sympathetic to much of what the noble Lord has said. I cannot speak for the GLA or for the Mayor. Tourists, like everyone else, want to move about within London and all over the country. Therefore, it is important to have a co-ordinated response and to attempt to improve public transport in the city as well as the movement of private cars.
Lord King of Bridgwater: My Lords, recognising the importance of tourism to our economy and the crucial importance of London, and the vital need for full ministerial attention to be given to the challenging situation at the present time, how much time does the Minister expect to be spending on the affairs of the Avon and Somerset Constabulary, for which I understand she is now responsible?
Baroness Blackstone: My Lords, I am not responsible for the Avon and Somerset Constabulary. I think that the noble Lord has been seriously misled by articles in the newspapers that do not represent reality. I am one of 10 Ministers responsible for
supporting Home Office Ministers in relation to the Prime Minister's street crime initiative. The reason I am one of those 10 Ministers is that an important part of this initiative is to organise diversionary activities for young people in the area of the arts and sport, in order to keep them off the streets in the summer holidays. The evidence suggests that less crime is committed as a result.
Baroness Gardner of Parkes: My Lords, is the Minister aware that every year Westminster City Council carries out a survey of tourism in Westminster? The survey shows that 41 per cent of people spend only one day in London. One of their great complaints is about the beggars and the lack of personal safety in the city. Does she think it important that those issues should be addressed if London is to become a gateway? The city must attract people if they are to come to London and then go on from there.
Baroness Blackstone: My Lords, of course I agree. It is for those reasons as well as many others that the Prime Minister is determined that we should reduce the amount of street crime, not just in London, but across the country.
Lord Fearn: My Lords, will the Minister join me in congratulating the BTA, which, through its Britain Visitor Centre, now deals with 450,000 visitors a year? Most of those are shelved off to other areas of Britain. Many of them come to Southport for golf, because we have seven golf courses.
Baroness Blackstone: Yes, my Lords. The Britain Visitor Centre in Regent Street, which is run by the BTA, has been enormously successful in getting visitors to come in and find out what is available around the country, including in Southport.
Money Laundering
2.44 p.m.
Lord Peyton of Yeovil asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Which government departments last year authorised or instigated the inquiries which bankers, accountants, stockbrokers and others were required to make of their customers to discourage money laundering; and what results ensued.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, the role of the Government is to ensure that the necessary regulatory framework to fight money laundering is put in place. The law imposes specific duties on financial institutions, such as those of identifying customers and staff training. The provisions will be strengthened under Part 7 of the Proceeds of Crime Bill, currently before your Lordships' House, and by forthcoming revisions to the money laundering regulations, which are the responsibility of my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
In 2001, 31,251 reports of suspected money laundering were submitted to the authorities by financial institutions and other bodies.
Lord Peyton of Yeovil: My Lords, I do not suppose that I have a chance of persuading the noble Lord that there is something reprehensible about twisting the arms of private sector organisations into grilling their customers for information, some of which they have already and other aspects of which are none of their business. I am not impressed by the noble Lord's bureaucratic answer, but perhaps I can persuade him that this is just another of those vexatious intrusions that cause the private, law-abiding individual a great deal of irritation and would not cause a money launderer to do more than twitch.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I suspect that my chances of persuading the noble Lord that the Government might have a point here are rather slim. Increasingly, we are getting tremendous levels of co-operation from the private sector. Some 62 per cent of reports of suspected money laundering activity come from banks, 14 per cent come building societies and 7 per cent come from other financial institutions. Surely this is an issue on which those on all sides of your Lordships' House should agree. We welcome support, particularly from the Opposition, for aspects of the Proceeds of Crime Bill, the aim of which is to tackle money laundering fundamentally. We should all support that.
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