I completely agree, and my hon. Friend is absolutely right. There are terrible instances of all sorts of different scams, and—this is the honest truth—remarkably few prosecutions. Whether the number is two, four or five, it should be in the hundreds. [Interruption.] Six—half a dozen—great!
The truth is that we all know instances from our constituencies of people who have faced precisely these problems. I have had constituents say to me, “I feel too embarrassed to own up to having bought these tickets.” I remember going past the Millennium stadium in Cardiff, or Arms Park in the old days, and we all despised the ticket touts, just as we did outside a Kate Bush concert or whatever. Sometimes, however, we were just so desperate that we bought the tickets, and they of course turned out to be fraudulent or non-existent, or they were allocated to specific kinds of people that did not include us. All those points are worth making, and I would add this one: all local authorities have trading
standards offices but many are now so depleted because of the state of local government finances that it is very difficult for anybody to get proper recompense and a deal.
2.30 pm
The Lords amendment—[Interruption.] I am sorry, I am not sure whether the Parliamentary Private Secretary, the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Alexander Stafford), was seeking to intervene. [Interruption.] Indeed, he is not allowed to, poor thing; he is silenced. Lords amendment 104 does the bare minimum. It would require facilities to accept postings only if they provide evidence of purchase from the primary market, it would limit the resale of more tickets than a single customer can buy on the primary market, and it would require clear information on the face value and trader’s business name and address on the first page of a secondary ticketing facility. That is simply not seen on any of these sites today.
If the Conservative Government refuse to act, Labour will. We will bring these measures in and go further, restricting the resale of tickets at more than a small set percentage over the price the original purchaser paid, including fees. Fans have been waiting for far too long. A Labour Government would end the pernicious and predatory ticket touting and put fans back at the heart of music, cultural and sporting events, where they belong. And if I might just say so, the idea of a review—