London Olympics Bill

The right hon. Lady is absolutely right. I should like to reflect, in passing, that if some of the events organisers who complain about ticket touting were to establish more effective operations to enable the official resale of tickets for people who, perhaps through illness, are unable to use them, some of these problems could be resolved. Stopping ticket touting, especially in this internet age, requires far more than that, however. I am delighted that there are tough measures in the Bill, but I hope that they will go wider and address the issue raised by the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker), for example. I have already mentioned the fact that the role of the RDAs appears to be somewhat restricted, and I hope that we shall have the opportunity to address that. I would like the Minister to answer at least one of the questions put by the right hon. Member for Maidenhead. Yes, the Olympic development authority is to produce an annual report and give it to the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of State will ensure that it is available to Parliament. That is welcome, and I hope that the same will apply to the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General into those accounts. However, I entirely support the right hon. Lady’s call not only for the report to be made available to Parliament but for an annual debate to be held in Government time on the subject. Given this country’s proud record of being almost the founders of the Paralympic games, I hope that we shall always ensure that whenever we talk about the Olympic games, the Paralympics will be given equal importance. In that respect, is it not somewhat strange that while the Bill refers explicitly to the need to comply with the Race Relations Act 1976, there is no similarly explicit requirement to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995? I hope that that omission will be remedied. In the run-up to the bid, huge numbers of people across the country gave their support. Now we have succeeded, and we celebrate that. We praise all those involved in ensuring that success. We recognise, however, that we have but seven short years in which to deliver the commitment that we made to provide the best games ever. The Bill forms part of the necessary procedures that will ensure that we do that. I can assure the Minister, his Secretary of State and the House that we will give our full support to the Bill, notwithstanding that there are areas in which we believe that it could be improved. We will continue to provide our support over the next seven years to those working on every aspect of the preparations for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, and, as a starter for 10, we will certainly support the Bill.