Agenda item

The Committee considered a report which detailed the Gambling Act – Review of Statement of Principles.  Members were asked to approve the draft revised Statement of Principles, as attached at Appendix 1 to the report; for the purpose of consultation with relevant parties, as detailed on page 30 of the main agenda report.

 

The Principal Officer (Licensing), Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS), introduced the report and in doing so informed the Committee that the Council’s current Statement of Principles under the Gambling Act 2005 had taken effect on 31^st January 2022.

 

In accordance with the provisions of the Act, the Council was required to determine and publish a Statement of Principles every three years.  Therefore, a new Statement of Principles must be published by 31^st January 2025.

 

Members’ attention was drawn to paragraph 3.9 in the report, which detailed that in April 2023, the government published a long awaited white paper entitled ‘High Stakes: Gambling Reform for Digital Age’, following the review of the Government Act 2005 that was first launched in December 2020.

 

The white paper contained a number of proposals for reforming gambling

regulation in the following areas:

 

·           Online protections – players and products

·           Marketing and advertising

·           The Gambling Commission’s powers and resources

·           Dispute resolution and consumer redress

·           Children and young adults

·           Land-based gambling

 

Whilst many of the proposed reforms were not directly relevant to the role that

the Council played in the regulation of gambling activities, there were some

proposed changes that were directly relevant.  These included:

 

·         Proposals to relax the rules on the split of low and medium maximum stake machines in certain licensed gambling premises.

·         A review of the premises licence fees cap for local authorities.

·         Introducing new powers to local authorities to conduct cumulative impact assessments for gambling premises.

·         Proposals to change the rules that allow under 18s to play Category D gaming machines that pay cash prizes.

·         Proposals to make provisions within the Gambling Commission’s code of practise on the siting of gaming machines in licensed premises legally binding.

 

Following the publication of the white paper, several different consultations were undertaken by both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Gambling Commission concerning the various proposals for legislative reform.

At this stage however, it was unclear as to when the government would bring forward the required legislation to implement the proposed reforms. 

 

This presented something of a dilemma for licensing authorities such as Bromsgrove District Council, as they were required before each successive three-year period, to prepare and publish a Statement of Principles that they proposed to apply in exercising their functions under the Act during that period.  The Council’s next Statement of Principles needed to be prepared and published before 31^st January 2025.

 

As the timescales for legislation to be brought forward were unclear at this

stage, officers were recommending that no substantive changes be made to

the Statement of Principles at the present time and therefore very few changes

were proposed in the draft Statement of Principles as detailed at Appendix 1 to

the report.

 

The only changes that officers believed need to be made at the present time

were as follows:

 

·      Updating the dates shown on the front page.

·      Updating the population figure given in the introduction to reflect the latest census figures.

·      Updating the dates between which consultation on the draft statement of principles will have taken place.

·      Updating the list of consultees at Appendix B of the statement of principles to include additional gambling and other relevant trade associations.

 

As well as having to prepare and publish a new Statement of Principles before

every successive three-year period, licensing authorities were also able to

review their statements during those three-year periods and revise the

statement at any point in time if necessary.

 

Whilst officers do not believe that any substantive changes were required too

the Statement of Principles at this present time, it was considered highly likely

that a revised Statement of Principles would need to be prepared and published

between 31^st January 2025 and 31^st January 2028 in order to make any

revisions that may be necessary as a result of any regulatory reforms enacted

in connection with the proposals set out in the white paper.

 

In light of this, only minor revisions had been included in the draft Statement of Principles.

 

Consultation on the revised draft Statement of Principles would take place with all of the relevant parties, as detailed in paragraph 3.20 of the report.   The consultation would also be made available for comment via the Council’s website and published via social media and local press.  Given that the proposed changes to the existing Statement of Principles were very minor, the consultation would be carried out over a period of six to eight weeks. 

Any responses received to the consultation would be presented to a future meeting of the Licensing Committee.

 

It was noted that the facing page of the Draft Statement of Principles showed 2022 – 2025 and that this needed to be amended to 2025 – 2028.

 

The Principal Officer (Licensing), WRS, explained that the minor changes would be highlighted in the draft Statement of Principes, enabling those consulted with to see clearly see the changes.

 

Councillor H. D. N. Rone-Clarke queried the wording in paragraph 23.3 of the draft Statement of Principles, Members agreed that the wording be amended to include the word ‘and’:

 

“23.3 An arrangement is a complex lottery if:

 

• persons are required to pay to participate

• one or more prizes are allocated to one or more members of a class

• the prizes are allocated by a series of processes and

• the first of those processes relies wholly on chance”.

 

RESOLVED that subject to the amendments as detailed in the preamble above, that the draft revised Statement of Principles, as detailed at Appendix 1 to the report, be approved for the purpose of consultation with relevant parties.