Police Charges For Football

EDM number 68 in 1990-91, proposed by Joseph Ashton on 14/11/1990.

That this House notes that the Home Secretary, following an Audit Commission report, has instructed local police authorities to levy the full cost of policing football on to the individual clubs including all overheads such as pensions, rent allowances etc. and not just the overtime involved; further notes that clubs have to pay without any opportunity to negotiate on the number of policemen on duty, the hours charged, or the rate per hour; also notes the wide variation in charges where similar clubs in the same league are charged 40 pence per spectator at Halifax and five pence per spectator at nearby Scunthorpe and that the whole of the gate receipts for the recent cup match between Wimbledon and Plymouth went to pay the police costs; deplores the new charges of approximately ú100 per constable per match which will take an extra ú2 million from the game at a time the Government is demanding that the clubs install all seater stadiums; and now calls on the Home Secretary to introduce a flat charge of approximately two per cent of the gate money to be paid to the police authorities in order to iron out the anomalies and keep many small clubs in existence.

This motion has been signed by a total of 98 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.