Safety of Sports Grounds (Northern Ireland) Order 2005

My Lords, I am very grateful for the obviously widespread support that the order has received. I fully accept that it is long overdue and that it is better late than never. It is fortunate that there has not been a major tragedy in Northern Ireland. The order has been consulted on. On the noble Baroness’s questions, the term ““reasonable”” is included throughout our legislation. It would be wrong for a district council to impose an unreasonable requirement on a sports ground because they would have grounds for complaining about it if it was thought to be unreasonable. There would be an appeals system. All reasonable precautions should be taken. Some people may be required to do some work as a result of this. We all know what the reasonable precautions will be: crash barriers, entrances and so on, and perhaps the formulation of the stands. But it will be wholly reasonable. They will not be asked to do anything in Northern Ireland that people in Great Britain have not been asked to do. That brings me to the second part of the noble Baroness’s question. The provision is not identical because it suits Northern Ireland, but, for all practical purposes, it brings Northern Ireland legislation into line with what exists now in Great Britain. A regulatory impact assessment has been carried out. The Government have estimated that it will cost about £30 million over the next 10 years to bring the major sports grounds in Northern Ireland into line with the proposed new order. A start has been made. Already £9 million is being provided over the next three years to assist the sports council implement a new stadia safety programme. The main objective of the Sports Council scheme is to address the long-term spectator safety deficiencies at major grounds. The grounds in Northern Ireland vary enormously in size. There are not many of the very large ones. The stadia safety scheme is a strategic programme and encourages sports to adopt a strategic approach to improving the safety at grounds. I know that this was not covered by the regulatory impact assessment, but turning to the Explanatory Memorandum at Paragraph 11, it has been difficult to quantify the costs, but the department estimates the following. The cost to individual clubs will be £1,150; the cost to a district council for a safety certificate will be £200,000 to £362,000 and the cost to the department for running it £90,000 per annum, overheads not included. There will be a charge for these certificates in due course. That will be enunciated by the department. I have a more specific answer. Is this identical to legislation in the UK? The answer is yes. For all practical purposes, I said the same. On Question, Motion agreed to.