HC Deb 25 May 1984 vol 60 cc567-8W
Mr. Murphy

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the conclusions of the Council of Europe's fourth conference of European Ministers responsible for sport.

Mr. Macfarlane

I represented the United Kingdom at the conference of European Ministers responsible for sport last week. The agenda was divided into three themes: development and promotion of sport for all; economic changes and sport; and European sports co-operation 1984 to 1987.

A number of resolutions were adopted, all of which were acceptable to the United Kingdom. In particular, the conference endorsed the European anti-doping charter for sport which calls for concerted action to rid sport of drug abuse. This is one of the more intractable problems of sport today, and can only be treated by concerted international action. Another important agenda item was soccer spectator violence. I had a useful exchange with my colleagues, during which I explained how we in the United Kingdom implement the Council of Europe recommendation on spectator violence. I said: In the UK, the Government and other public authorities involved, as well as the football authorities, have nominated responsible officers or 'contact points', and all the organisations involved come together in a working group to plan for matches where they rate the likelihood of violence as high. This applies particularly to matches involving British teams playing abroad in Europe: it appears that a hard-core of hooligans—whose only interest in soccer is that it provides a vehicle for their violence—regularly travel abroad since they believe that it is now often easier to cause trouble in other countries than it is in the UK. This working group supervises and monitors the various precautions which are taken: —the authorities in the host country are altered to our concerns: some of my colleagues here today will have received letters from me doing just this; — as much advance information as possible about the movements of supporters and others is obtained, and those movements are monitored; —this information is passed on by the British police to their colleagues, and through our embassies and consulates, both in the host country, and in the countries through which the supporters will be travelling; —the information is used by the British police to deploy their forces to counter any trouble. We pay particular attention to the Channel crossing, and the British Transport police will board Sealink UK Ferries (on which they have jurisdiction) on which significant numbers of supporters are travelling. We urge our colleagues whose countries also operate Channel ferries similarly to police them. We ensure that the ferry companies, and the ferry masters, are aware of the need to forewarn the ports for which they are heading if there is any trouble, and that they need not accept on board potential passengers who are already drunk or violent; —the English clubs and football authorities will meet their counterparts and the local police forces (with the assistance of our embassies and consulates) in advance of the match to make detailed preparations, including the segregation of supporters inside the ground which can only be achieved through proper control of ticket sales, the transport routes to be taken by the British supporters to ensure, so far as is possible, segregation outside the ground, and that sufficient police are deployed in the right places; control of access to and egress from the ground is important. The English Football Association has an international liaison officer—a retired senior police officer—whose job it is to advise clubs on these precautions, and to travel to the venues for away matches to advise all concerned.

We adopted a resolution which I tabled confirming that my colleagues and I will take positive steps to ensure that the provisions of the Council of Europe recommendation on spectator violence are implemented for matches in Europe.

We also received a report from the president of the International Olympic Committee on the threatened boycott of this year's Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The conference agreed a resolution I proposed expressing our support for the Olympic Games and the olympic movement now and in the future.

The conference also adopted resolutions on ways to increase the impact of sport for all policies on participation, with particular reference to specific target groups; economic changes in sport; employment in sport; sport as a means of peace; discrimination in sport; and future activities of the Council of Europe in the field of sport.

I shall place copies of these resolutions in the Library once the final texts have been circulated by the conference secretariat.