The management of the Royal Albert Hall has belatedly banned trustees from selling their tickets to touts after it was revealed by the Times newspaper that two of its trustees were making more than £100,000 a year from the sales, and one had set up his own touting company to profit.

The move also follows criticism of the Royal Albert Hall management by the Charities Commission, and warnings that the touted tickets brought the venue into disrepute and could put their funding from the National Lottery, worth £40 million since 1996, at risk.

A new by-law, hastily brought in by the hall management, requires members selling unwanted tickets to sell them at face value or less, stopping the abuse.