Agenda item

Report number:     CAB/WS/21/048

Portfolio holder: Councillor Andy Drummond

Lead officer: Jen Eves

Recommended to Council:

(14 December 2021)

That:

1.           The revised Gambling Act 2005: West Suffolk Statement of Policy for the period 2022 to 2025, as contained in Appendix B to Report number CAB/WS/21/048, be agreed.

2.           The revised West Suffolk Local Area Profile (LAP), as contained in Appendix C to Report number CAB/WS/21/048, be agreed.

(Report number CAB/WS/21/048)

Councillor Andy Drummond, Portfolio Holder for Regulatory and Environment presented this report which explained that the West Suffolk Statement of Gambling Policy set out how the Council, in its role as Licensing Authority, would carry out its functions under the Gambling Act 2005. It recognised the importance of responsible gambling within the entertainment industry, while seeking to balance this with the key objectives of the Act. The objectives were:

·         Preventing gambling from being a source of crime and disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime.

·         Ensuring that gambling was conducted in a fair and open way.

·         Protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

The objective of the Statement of Policy was to provide a vision for the local area and a statement of intent that guided practice. Licensing authorities must have regard to their Statement when carrying out their licensing functions. The Statement cannot create new requirements for applicants outside of the Act and cannot override the right of any person to make an application, make representations or seek a review of a licence under the Act. However, it could invite people and operators to consider local issues and set out how they could contribute towards positively addressing them.

The revised Policy had been subject to consultation (which had been undertaken between 16 August 2021 and 20 September 2021), contained minor changes and the consultation had broadly supported these changes.  Pre-consultation, the only change to the Policy was centred around the statutory reduction of maximum stakes for Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) which was reduced from £100 to £2 and had been enacted into law in April 2019.  Following consultation with stakeholders, one additional alteration was made to update the HN Revenues and Customs contact details.

Following the consultation, the Council had updated its Local Area Profile (LAP) (as set out in Appendix C). A LAP was an assessment of the key characteristics of West Suffolk in the context of gambling-related harm. The information obtained for the assessment helped to provide a better understanding of the types of people that were at risk of being vulnerable to gambling-related harm; where they were located and any current or emerging problems that might increase that risk. The local area profile would help set out the Council’s expectations of operators of gambling premises.  Some or many of these matters would have been considered and addressed by existing premises.

A Statement of Policy typically ran for a period of three years, although there was nothing to prevent the authority from updating more frequently if it wished to. The current Policy expired on 31 January 2022 and a revised version had been consulted on with statutory consultees. This would then require review in 2024, for re-adoption by January 2025.

Recommended to Council:

(14 December 2021)

That:

1.           The revised Gambling Act 2005: West Suffolk Statement of Policy for the period 2022 to 2025, as contained in Appendix B to Report number CAB/WS/21/048, be agreed.

2.           The revised West Suffolk Local Area Profile (LAP), as contained in Appendix C to Report number CAB/WS/21/048, be agreed.