Private Security Industry Act 2001 (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Order 2009

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that lengthy and carefully thought through explanation of the orders that we are debating. I support them in principle. I declare an interest as a consultant to a security firm based in Whitehall. I took part in all the debates during the passage of the Bill in 2001, so I am familiar with and confident about the SIA procedure. We debated the Bill long and hard in lots of detail and got a number of concessions from and agreements with the Government. I felt that it was a good Bill by the time it was finished. I made a nuisance of myself about guards and supervisors in relation to sport. I remember the argument about major golf tournaments, hockey tournaments or other tournaments having to have supervisors, superintendents or whatever one cares to call them. Clubs and people promoting these games would not have been able to afford the cost because in order to get an SIA licence you have to do a considerable amount of training, take exams and so on, and somebody has to pay for that. I would like to hear from the Minister that amateur sport, if using amateur, unpaid monitors or stewards, does not come under the SIA regime. I brought professional golf back to Northern Ireland in the 1990s for the first time post-IRA and ended up with the British PGA Senior Open being played at Portrush, where we had thousands of people. Every green and tee has to have stewards. If events have to pay for stewarding at the level required by the SIA, they will disappear. I would like to be encouraged to believe that they have been excepted. Paragraph 4.4— Sitting suspended for a Division in the House.