§ 19. Mr. Rankinasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will seek to make compulsory the introduction of controls at all gatherings in Scotland in order to ensure the safe handling of crowds of people; and if he will assist financially those organisations which, owing to lack of money, may find it difficult to adopt his measures.
§ Mr. Gordon CampbellI have no proposals for general legislation of the kind suggested. So far as sports grounds are concerned I would refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply given to him by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs and Agriculture on 24th May.—[Vol. 837, c. 367.]
§ Mr. RankinThe fact that the right hon. Gentleman has no proposals to meet my proposition is no excuse for his doing nothing about it. Does he realise that this is an important problem? Will he have another thought about it and realise that it is necessary to do something about it?
§ Mr. CampbellThe hon. Gentleman knows very well my concern about the subject and that the Government have indicated their acceptance in principle of the recommendations of Lord Wheatley's report on crowd safety at sports grounds. We have started the very important consultations with all the interested parties.