Date: Wednesday 28 February 2018
Time: 11:00
Venue: Sport and Recreation Alliance, Burwood House, 4th floor, 14 Caxton Street, London SW1H 0QT
PRESENT:
In the chair – Ben Calveley (Rugby Football Union)
ATTENDEES:
Ross Hamilton (British Horseracing Authority), Will Aitkenhead (The Racecourse Association), Simon Taylor (Professional Players Federation), Katie Dooling (Rugby Football Union), Brian Havill (Swim England)
Present over the phone – Andy Wright (Professional Golfers Association)
ABSENT WITH APOLOGIES:
Scott Dougall (British Cycling), Sam Gould (Lawn Tennis Association), Monica Shafaq (Sport and Recreation Alliance), Richard Baldwin (Sport and Recreation Alliance), Anne Usher MBE (Sport and Recreation Alliance), Jane Nickerson (Swim England), David Mahoney (England and Wales Cricket Board)
IN ATTENDANCE:
Emma Boggis (CEO), James Allen (Director of Policy and Governance), Rob Arnott (Communications and Engagement Manager), Leigh Thompson (Policy Manager), Tom Morgan (Membership Development Officer)
AGENDA
Ben Calveley (BC) welcomed the members and asked for brief introductions to be given.
BC confirmed that the deadline for written submissions has passed, but he understood the CMS Select Committee is still happy to receive further input.
James Allen (JA) summarised the Alliance submission and suggested that sport plays a significant role in delivering social value but could be better at providing evidence of this. He encouraged all organisations to share real life examples and case studies.
Katie Dooling (KD) spoke about the Rugby Football Union (RFU) having great statistics that can prove how rugby can be used as a tool to impact social change.
Ross Hamilton (RH) stated that the British Horse Authority (BHA) are focusing on rural and societal impact and also highlighting the opportunity of labour replacement. They are using case studies on education and diversity and raising awareness in the grassroots community.
ACTION - Alliance to circulate their submission (provided in a link at the end of the minutes) and all encouraged to submit evidence if they have not already done so.
a. Lords Home Affairs Sub-Committee Inquiry
JA gave thanks to colleagues from the RFU and BHA for providing strong statistics and evidence. He then described the three main areas of impact focused on. Firstly, the breadth of the sector and that sport sector employs a large number of people which directly impacts the economy. Secondly the continued need for free movement of people on a seasonable basis particularly for some sports and thirdly he highlighted the potential impact on the ability to host major events.
JA blog – Brexit: What does it mean for sport and recreation
JA also flagged that there is a possibility that Erasmus funding will disappear and called on members to share any evidence around the impact this could have.
Simon Taylor (ST) spoke about the Professional Players Federation (PPF) focus on getting the right balance for individuals to be able to move flexibly around Europe and to protect the job contracts of people currently employed.
JA explained that the committee were vague around next steps, but the Alliance will keep members updated as further information becomes available.
ACTION – Members to work together to amass more statistics/evidence on potential BREXIT impact.
ACTION – Members to share the written submissions they provide to the Committee
ACTION – Alliance to provide copy of their submission (provided in a link at the end of the minutes)
b. Brexit - A manifesto for the sector
Leigh Thompson (LT) introduced the draft Brexit handout and explained that the purpose of the document is to press the government to come up with more clarity on a number (currently 6) specific areas. It was proposed that we might look to publish this plan towards end March 2018 as we approached the ‘One year to go’ to BREXIT point and it could provide a useful narrative for sports to be getting behind and raising the same issues.
BC agreed with the areas covered however wondered if they needed a bit more by way of explanation for those not as familiar with the issues.
RH explained the issues BHA have with stable staff accompanying horses. He also made some suggestions around the language in point 3.
JA noted it may be possible to add stats from Tourism surveys about those visiting for major sporting events.
KD suggested providing more data and statistics to help the government to answer the questions.
EB commented that perhaps the first point should be more part of the wider context as 2-6 are currently more specific asks of Government.
ACTION – Members to provide comments on the draft by 9 March.
ACTION - Alliance to revise in light of feedback.
a. Membership Review
Rob Arnott (RA) provided an overview of the membership review and thanked members for their contributions.
RA stated that the three key areas identified as being very important by members include, being part of a collective voice, being kept up to date with sector news and having access to our expertise – such as governance, policy and crisis comms support and advice.
The Alliance will be working towards providing more tailored services to members around these three main areas moving forward.
BC stated that the RFU greatly values and appreciates meeting with fellow members and being able to work together to better sport.
b. Sports Business Council
Emma Boggis (EB) briefly updated the meeting on the work of the Sports Business Council. There have been three meetings so far with the latest hosted at Lords by the ECB in January.
Most of discussion was about the Government’s recently published industrial strategy and the opportunity to develop a ‘sector deal’ for sport. One of the ‘grand challenges’ highlighted in the strategy was that of an ageing population and EB said this presents a good opportunity for the sector to show it can play a strong part in addressing this. She noted that the Council has four working groups (Skills, IP, Event staging and hosting, Sports Economy) and encouraged members to feed in any views on these via the Alliance.
c. Mental health
EB spoke about the 3rd anniversary of the Mental Health Charter (MHC) established by the Alliance, Mind and the Professional Players Federation to ensure the sector is doing its upmost to tackle mental health issues.
Currently the MHC has over 300 signatories and the Alliance is working with current signatories to capture the impact of their work. All members are encouraged to share any successes they have had to date.
EB then spoke about the work the Alliance and Mind are currently doing around elite athletes and their mental well-being and hoped to secure some funding from DCMS to produce some guidance that is bespoke to the sector to implement the recommendations from the Farmer/Stephenson review.
5. SPORTING FUTURE SECOND ANNUAL REPORT – member discussion
Members discussed the Sporting Future second annual report.
LT gave a brief summary of the purpose of the review, being to look at the efficiency of UKAD. Moving forward UKAD would be expected to recover much more of their costs, get paid more for the services they provide and work much more closely with NGBs. The review confirmed there is still a need for UKAD to be an organisation in arms length from Government. It was noted that if testing is to go further into grassroots and the fitness industry the resource implications will be huge.
LT believes UKAD’s focus will stay on the elite and activity at a grassroots level will be based around raising awareness.
BC spoke on the RFU testing at grassroots level and wonders whether the public would want this. The RFU find vast majority of doping is in the community game not the elite and agrees that the approach to the grassroots should be more educational.
ACTIONS – Members to be aware of the recommendations from the tailored review
KD updated on the work that the RFU, along with a number of NGBs, have been working with Bird and Bird around the Data Protection Bill currently going through Parliament. Some concerns remain about the role of consent KD was waiting on further advice from Bird and Bird to see if any more pressure is applied to change their stance.
KD updated on the investigation. There is an emphasis on sport taking action to help consumers who have tickets voided after being sold via secondary tickets platforms. The consensus was that a letter to the consumer, explaining the situation was good practice and that every effort should be made to sell a genuine ticket to the consumer. However, the sports cannot be responsible for issuing refunds and indeed, doing so would encourage people to use secondary platforms. There was also general agreement that the sport sector should provide clear T&Cs, not just in the small print about their policy around secondary ticketing.
RH wanted to highlight that the gambling industry is under a lot of scrutiny and more widely, the sectors relationship with betting firms is also under pressure. RH asked members in the room if they could outline responsible gambling where possible.
ST stated the PPF has worked with GambleAware to deliver online education. He also suggested there is potential for funding for other members who are keen to work with GambleAware. ST offered to introduce the Alliance to GambleAware and it might be useful to invite them to attend a future meeting of this group.
ACTION – ST to introduce the Alliance to GambleAware.
EB explained that government has announced a consultation on their new civil society strategy. The Alliance will be responding and EB asked members in the room to think about sports contribution to civil society. [https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/civil-society-strategy-have-your-say]
EB had recently met with Tom Watson the Shadow Culture Secretary who stated that the Labour Party is committed to having the most ambitious sports strategy in its next manifesto. He also indicated an interest in looking at the role between preventative health and sport and physical activity which EB welcomed. The Alliance had also briefed him on the issues discussed earlier around the Data Protection Bill where the support of the opposition may be required.
Lords Home Affairs Sub-Committee Inquiry - Submission
DCMS Select Committee Inquiry - Submission
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