London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Bill

My Lords, I am disappointed, although I am not surprised. I should like to put firmly on record my appreciation of the seriousness and thoroughness with which the Minister has addressed my amendment and the whole issue. The first stage of that was his amendment earlier today, which reversed the assumption of guilt process. The second stage was his amendments, which have opened up the Bill to enforce more consultation on the issue with whichever groups and people are considered the right ones in the industry. I am also much less concerned than I was, having heard about the regulations. I sincerely hope that the final copy of those regulations will be published and in the hands of the industry and those who need them before Royal Assent. I see the Minister nodding, for which I thank him. I am also encouraged by the amount of education, by the seminars and the guidance, and generally by the fact that LOCOG has clearly tackled this serious and large communication problem. I raised these subjects in Committee, as I was very concerned about the amount of communication that LOCOG needed throughout the sporting world and the advertising industry if there was not to be injustice at some stage as a result of this Bill. I still feel that it would have been more satisfactory if there had been a little more time. I was expecting Royal Assent in April but, if that is not until June or July, we are talking of a matter of only two or three months. However, I do not want to take any particular chances, and I believe that the Minister, the Government and LOCOG really do believe that this date is critical to their potential achievement, particularly in their fundraising. I accept what the Minister says about the value of ambush marketing to the ambushers and the temptations offered by those businesses, both large and small. We can control only those within our own country. The real story about Qantas was that it targeted foreign Olympic associations and athletes. As far as I can see, that is an area that we cannot control, which is very relevant to the ambush-marketing problem. I thank noble Lords who have supported this amendment very much more eruditely than I have placed the arguments, and I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.