Don Foster MP for Bath introduces the Safe Standing Bill

Don Foster MP for Bath introduced the Safe Standing Bill to the Commons on the 7th December 2010. This bill would allow standing at football grounds. Here is a copy of his speech to the Commons:

"Mr Speaker, I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to give all football clubs the freedom to build, or maintain existing, safe standing sections in their stadia if they choose;

to establish minimum safety criteria that must be met for standing sections in football stadia;

and for connected purposes."

Mr Speaker, any debate on football stadia will inevitably - and rightly - raise the spectre of the tragic events at Hillsborough in 1989 and those, such as that at the Heysel stadium in 1985, that preceded it.

No debate about this topic can avoid addressing these tragedies and their repercussions, which are still resonating with us even now.

The events of 15 April 1989, which saw the deaths of 96 people and the injury of hundreds more, were uniquely horrific. An entire city has struggled with that day's trauma ever since.

The annual memorial services held at Anfield and elsewhere show that that day is still keenly felt and will never be forgotten. Nor should it be.

Nor should anyone believe that, in raising the possibility of introducing safe standing in football grounds now, I am critical of the actions that were taken 20 years ago to outlaw standing at matches in the top two football leagues.

I am in certainly not calling for a return to the old style terraces. They were poorly designed, overcrowded, poorly monitored, and entirely unsuitable for the purposes for which they were used.

A return to that world would be a retrograde, and wholly unacceptable, step.

Rather, today I am proposing something very different - another step forward, to more modern, safe football stands; stands that provide what fans want but do so with maximum safety.

After all standing is not inherently unsafe.

Lord Taylor's report into Hillsborough cited many reasons why the disaster occurred.

The fact the crowd was standing was not one of those reasons.

Rather, it happened as a result of:

 Gross overcrowding

 A lack of concern for the safety and comfort of spectators,

 A lack of awareness of existing safety regulation, and

 The poor design of the old style terraces

The disaster happened because of a culture of negligence, not because standing is inherently unsafe.

Lord Taylor recommended all-seater stadia because, he argued;

a) seats establish individual areas for individual fans and give them more space and comfort

b) seats prevent crowd surging, and

c) seats make it easier to identify troublemakers in the crowds

I will come onto how modern safe standing preserves these features in a moment.

But it is worth noting that, in making his recommendations, Lord Taylor believed that fans would become accustomed to sitting and come to prefer it.

20 years later, thousands of fans in the Premiership and the Championship demonstrate that this is not the case.

And when fans stand in all-seater stadia today, it causes problems:

It ruins the experience for those who want to sit.

But equally, for many fans who prefer to stand, sitting ruins their experience.

And when they do stand - as many do - it is particularly unsafe.

Yet, as we know, preventing large numbers from standing in all-seater stadia is extremely difficult for stewards and the police.

If it can be done safely - and it can be - I believe it would be far better to have a mix of safe seating and safe standing areas in stadia where clubs chose to offer such options.

That way, children, families, and those who want a more peaceful experience could have it, while those who want to stand could exercise that right.

And it can be done.

Countries like the United States, Canada, and Germany are certainly not negligent towards their citizens' safety. Yet these countries have harnessed technological developments to create standing areas that are safe.

They are a popular choice with supporters.

In such areas, as with seated areas, there are designated spaces for each fan.

There are barriers between rows, preventing surging, pushing or jostling.

Individual fans can be easily identified if they are causing trouble, since they are limited to their own individual spaces.

Thus the key reasons why Lord Taylor recommended seating can also all be met with safe standing.

Indeed, in many cases, each individual standing area comes with its own flip down seat. This corresponds with UEFA and FIFA rules that require international and European matches to be seating only.

There is absolutely no evidence that such standing areas, where properly designed, managed and maintained, are unsafe for domestic matches.

As numerous polls have shown, they are overwhelmingly backed by supporters.

And by creating more space for fans, clubs could reduce the price of tickets offering another benefit for fans.

The question of standing is even more pressing for fans of Scunthorpe FC. For them, promotion has come at a very high price. After their third season in the top two tiers, they will have to have converted their ground into an all-seating venue.

This will reduce the ground's capacity - already the lowest in the Championship - from 9000 to 8000. Neither the club nor its supporters want this.

More seats means less space and so fewer supporters will get to see their team.

And if Scunthorpe is demoted in future, they will not be able to convert some of their seats back to standing areas. The conversion will have come at tremendous expense - Scunthorpe FC will have paid for the privilege of ruining their own ground.

I am grateful to the Hon Members for Scunthorpe and for Brigg and Goole, whose constituents are impacted by this change, for their support for this Bill.

I am also grateful to the Minister for Sport for agreeing to, at least, consult with relevant bodies about the issue.

Sadly, I suspect he will hear - as I continue to - some out-dated criticisms.

Some will raise the issue of cost. But that, as my Bill proposes, should be a matter for individual clubs to decide.

Some will suggest that spectators have become used to sitting and like it. But this is patently untrue as the long running campaigns by football fans' organisations show.

Some will argue that "statistics prove that seated stadia are safer than standing ones"

For some years the Football Licensing Authority (FLA) did claim this.

However, when these statistics were challenged as inaccurate, the FLA subsequently withdrew them.

As my Bill makes clear, minimum safety standards would be nationally established before any new safe standing areas are permitted.

Some might claim that seating has reduced hooliganism. But even before Hillsborough, hooliganism was declining.

Inside grounds and outside, in clubs that are all seated and in clubs that are terraced, hooliganism has receded. The character of this country's fans has changed for the better. For example, no England fans were arrested at the World Cup in South Africa with the exception of the practical joker who sneaked into the England team's dressing room.

The decline in football hooliganism is not directly because of a move to all seated stadia. Last week's Home Office arrest figures show no evidence of any link between grounds where standing is still allowed and the number of arrests. There is no reason to believe that a move introduce safe standing areas would mean an increase in hooliganism.

Finally, I have no doubt some will raise the issue of the UEFA and FIFA rules that I mentioned earlier; that games under their jurisdiction must be played in all-seater stadia.

But with the inclusion of flip down seats in each standing area, these regulations present no problem as was demonstrated in the Veltins Arena in Germany - used for the 2006 World Cup - and the Tivoli Stadium in Innsbruck, Austria, which was used during Euro 2008.

I defy opponents of safe standing to demonstrate that these stadia are unsafe, and that these countries are neglecting the safety of their fans by allowing standing.

Following the Hillsborough disaster it was right to take action against the old-style standing terraces. But modern developments mean that, as other countries have shown, it is perfectly possible to introduce safe standing into the stadia of Premiership and Championship Clubs - if the clubs want to and when stringent safety standards are met.

I hope the House will support moves to allow clubs to consider such options.