Agenda item

David Lucas of James Button & Company had been asked to provide the Council with assistance with the revision of the Gambling Statement of Principles.  The Committee had considered the draft statement at the Licensing Committee held on 21st June 2021. There were a number of changes which in the main were due to formatting and Mr Lucas confirmed that those amendments, summarised in the report, had all been incorporated into the statement and that no substantive change had been made to the policy. The reformatted policy statement had been sent out for consultation and had attracted one comment from Public Health and Wellbeing for West Berkshire in relation to a suggestion that public health considerations play a greater part in the Committee’s consideration in Licensing applications under the Gambling Act.  Whilst a laudable comment, it was not something the Committee could consider in relation to gambling matters because the Gambling Act was prescriptive as to the matters that could be taken into consideration and public health was not one of them.  It was proposed that some of the issues raised by Public Health could be dealt with by changing some operational practices.  Mr Lucas said this was possible provided they did not impact on the specific duties the Committee had under the Act pertaining to the way in which Members must carry out those duties.

Councillor Bridgman said that the document read well and was a good statement of the Council's gambling position and noted that Delegations had been removed from the draft which would now be dealt with separately.

Councillor Marsh said that the third objective of the gambling act was to protect children and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling and in the submission by Public Health West Berkshire they had referred to the impact gambling had on the poorest sectors of society and on mental health.  Councillor Marsh said, for example, if the head of a household became addicted to fixed odds betting machines and the family suffered as a consequence, surely that would be part of the third principle and wondered whether the Committee had some leeway to take those circumstances into account, as had been demonstrated by the Committee in response to objections to applications on the grounds of the impact granting a particular license may have on children.   Mr Lucas said notwithstanding that fixed odds betting machines no longer existed, the way in which the current legislation was framed made it difficult to allow for such leeway. When a Local Authority dealt with gambling applications, their only remit was to look at the premises and the way in which those premises may have an impact on public health but wider issues, such as the impact on family and friends, were regulated by the Gambling Commission.  As a point of interest, Mr Lucas added that the latest information from the Gambling Commission was that ‘the overall problem gambling rate had decreased significantly and the moderate risk rate had also decreased significantly’.  Councillor Bridgman said that most of the applications dealt with by the Committee were made under the Licensing Act rather than a single application under the Gambling Act for which the rules were somewhat different.  Mr Lucas said the Gambling Act  was currently being reviewed which may lead to a change in the Committee’s responsibilities and objectives and/or lead to Public Health being introduced as an objective but this would not be known until a White Paper was introduced, probably in 2023.

Councillor Vickers said whilst the third objective of the Gambling Act could not be dealt with under Licensing, could those issues be dealt with in a preventative way through Health and Wellbeing or through Children’s Services by way of an education raising awareness programme?  Councillor Jones responded that he thought this could indeed be the case.

Councillor Pask thanked Mr Lucas for the hard work undertaken in the revision of the Gambling Statement of Principles and proposed that the recommendations contained within the report were agreed by the Committee which was seconded by Councillor Abbs with the amendment to (c) to disallow the Officer to make minor corrections to the Statement without recourse to the Licensing Committee prior to inclusion in the Council agenda.

RESOLVED that the RECOMMENDATIONS in the report that the Licensing Committee:

(a)  NOTES the outcome of the consultation;

(b)  CONSIDERS any amendments needed to be made to the draft Statement of Gambling Principles arising from the consultation;

(c)  DELEGATES Authority to the Service Director (Development and Regulation), in consultation with the Portfolio Holder, to make any minor corrections to the Statement prior to inclusion in the Council agenda.

(d) RECOMMENDS to Full Council that the Statement be adopted, subject to any   amendments agreed at the meeting.

And that Full Council:

CONSIDERS the Statement and the consultation responses received, was CARRIED.