Canterbury City Council Bill

My hon. Friend is, as usual, absolutely right. We have got ourselves into a ridiculous situation. The Government are helpfully putting out a consultation to see whether national legislation on pedlars could be introduced, but we are here making these decisions about particular cities before we have even had the responses to the consultation or had the Government's response. We do not really know the merits of the arguments on either side, but we are being asked to pass legislation that will affect those areas. The same point applies to the issue of ticket touting in Nottingham. The Government have been carrying out a consultation on selling tickets on the secondary market, but they have yet to bring forward their proposals on the matter, if they wish to make any. It seems absurd to put the cart before the horse in relation to pedlars, without knowing what the Government's response on that issue is, and absurd to do exactly the same thing on ticket touting. I want to make another point about ticket touting. Everyone understands that selling tickets on the secondary market benefits those who sell the tickets, but I want to make it abundantly clear that the system works just as well for people who purchase tickets. Someone who wishes to go to an over-subscribed event, but who does not know when the tickets will come on sale, whether they will be able to go or whether their work will give them the time off, will have to resist the temptation to buy a ticket. They will not be able to guarantee that they can go. Many organisers do not allow refunds; that is one of the issues involved. If that person later finds that they can go to the event, but it is sold out, the practice of ticket touting gives them the one opportunity they have to purchase a ticket. They might have to pay over the odds for that ticket, but that is their choice. If they do not want to pay that amount of money, nobody forces them to do so. Ticket touting gives them the opportunity to make that decision, rather than it being taken out of their hands.