London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Bill

My Lords, I thank the Minister for those words and I am only sorry that the noble Lords, Lord Moynihan and Lord Coe, are not in their places to see the more constructive fruits that have emerged from the Grand Committee stage. These are significant amendments and will be warmly welcomed by the industry. It will be extremely useful to have them in the Bill. I want to make a few points of clarification. The government amendments make no mention of the period to be set aside for consultation. It would be helpful to have some indication from the Minister of the likely length of the consultative exercise to be conducted by the DCMS. Indeed, no doubt the Minister will be aware that the Cabinet Office’s own Code of Practice on Consultation, which applies to consultation undertaken by government departments, indicates that the period should be no less than 12 weeks. As I mentioned in Grand Committee, the International Olympic Committee may request that changes are made to its technical manual on brand protection at any time between now and 2012. The manuals form an integral part of the host city contract, and the Bill is intended to give legislative effect to the contractual obligations entered into by the Government. Were the IOC to make further changes to its technical manual on brand protection after any initial set of regulations are made under Clause 19 on, say, the physical location of advertising at some point between 2010 and 2012, presumably that would require further amending regulations to be made. Government assurance is therefore sought that in addition to consulting on the initial set of regulations issued, any further amending regulations required by the IOC as a consequence of changes the committee may make to the manual would also be consulted on. From a reading of the Bill I assume that is the case, but I hope that the Minister will be able to confirm it. Generally, however, I certainly welcome the amendments.