Police Federation concerns over new laws tackling ticket touts

New laws aimed at tackling ticket touts during next year’s European Championships in Glasgow could create accountability issues, the head of a police body has said.

Callum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), told MSPS there are a number of issues with the Uefa European Championship (Scotland) Bill, including the handing over of “pseudo police powers to nonpolice officers”.

The Bill, which will cover the games at Hampden next summer, is designed to ban ticket touting, as well as constrict advertisers near fan zones in the city to just those who sponsor the event and sets out the appointment of “enforcement officers” who are intended to be members of Glasgow City Council’s Trading Standards team.

Mr Steele told the Culture Committee yesterday that powers provided to the enforcement officers in the current form of the Bill create “accountability issues”.

He said: “In general, the SPF thinks it’s very important to maintain the distinction between police officers and others who may be afforded some form of police-like powers.

“Not least because of the unique role police officers hold in society and the standards to which they are held to account.

“Beyond that, we do have some concerns that there are fairly extensive powers afforded to non-warranted individuals who demand then the support and assistance of police officers.

“If this legislation is passed, enforcement officers could be carrying out the same actions as a police officer, while being held to a different set of accountability standards.”