Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Bill - House of Commons - 8 January 2004

Speech delivered on Thu 8th Jan 2004

4.52 pm

Mr. David Rendel (Newbury) (LD): I am delighted to have a chance to take part in the debate, not least because my constituency probably has the second greatest interest in the racing industry in the entire country. Because of our race course, gallops and many training stables, we are perhaps second only to Newmarket. I am also joint vice-chairman of the all-party committee on the issue. As a member of that committee, I took part in a delegation some time ago to ask the Minister to introduce legislation on the Tote. I am therefore delighted that it is being discussed on the Floor of the House today.

The all-party committee has always worked well and, indeed, I suspect that the whole industry has strong all-party support in the House. The only speech against the Bill was not from a member of the three main parties, and it had nothing to do with racing anyway. There is strong all-party support for what is happening and I am delighted that, on this issue at least, we can work together in the best interests of the people in the racing industry and those who enjoy the sport.

Given the strong support that there usually is in the Conservative party for the racing industry—I give it credit for that—it slightly surprised me that it came up recently with a set of principles that included one that stated that it did not believe that "one person's poverty is caused by another's wealth". Anyone who knows anything about the relationship between the punter and the bookmaker knows that that principle does not always hold.

I had thought that my first speech in the House this year would be against a Government Bill. As a spokesman on higher education, I suspected that I would not necessarily be able to support all the Government Bills this Session, but it is nice that we can at least support this Bill, not least because, as other Members have said, the industry is doing very well. There is no question but that the number of people going racing is increasing and has increased over the past few years, which is welcome to those of us with a strong racing interest.

It is also true that the racing industry feels vulnerable for several reasons, many of which have been explained this afternoon. It is vulnerable because the situation in which it finds itself is somewhat volatile, especially

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owing to the questions of the future of the Tote and the betting levy, and what the replacement for the betting levy will be. Additionally, the rule 14 notice from the Office of Fair Trading—I and other hon. Members have made our objections to that known to the Government for some time—has caused considerable unrest in the industry because the future of its financing could be under threat. As the bookmakers appear to be those who are most strongly in favour of the rule 14 notice and its possible effects—if anyone is—they are in danger of killing the goose that lays the golden egg. As many people have said, from the bookmakers' point of view the egg is indeed pure gold. The bookmakers would be sensible to think twice about supporting the notice because their livelihood depends on a strong and vigorous racing industry, but that industry is under threat at present.

To be fair to the bookmakers, they also face a slightly uncertain future because of the question of how betting exchanges will affect the betting industry. That matter could make them feel under greater threat and perhaps more likely to support the effects of the rule 14 notice. However, that should make us all wary of bookmakers' pronouncements on the matter and of allowing the OFT to get away with its current position.

As many hon. Members have said, although the Bill's basic principles are correct, it is unfortunate that it lacks detail on how to overcome several of the dangers that hon. Members and I have outlined. I share the worries of the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice) and my hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Mr. Foster) about what will happen when the exclusive licence ends in seven years. However, I shall concentrate on one of the problems by picking up a theme on which the hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Page) was beginning to elaborate: what we can do straight away to try to clarify the price for which the Tote will be sold, and how that should be decided.

The Government are being perhaps a little feeble—I hope that the Minister will think fit to respond to that in his winding-up speech—by failing to include a statement in the Bill on the principles by which the price of the Tote and the proportion of that price payable by the racing trust will be decided. The racing industry would be given a lot of help and satisfaction if the principles behind the calculations were in the Bill. I do not understand why the Minister cannot negotiate with the racing trust straight away to decide those principles so that they could be added to the Bill in Committee. I hope that he will guarantee in his winding-up speech that he will negotiate with the trust on how the Tote should be valued and the proportion of the value that should be paid when it is sold to the trust, because it could, and should, be done straight away.