Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what training is provided to retailers regarding the gambling risks associated with the National Lottery and other lottery products.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The 2018 Health Survey for England showed that lotteries were associated with the lowest rates of problem gambling of all gambling products considered, and the National Lottery operator is mandated under its licence to have player protection strategies.
The operator’s training programme, ‘Being a Responsible Retailer’, supports National Lottery retailers on risks related to National Lottery products and focuses on supporting healthy playing and preventing underage playing. This consists of online and face-to-face training, healthy playing knowledge checks, and further support where needed. The operator also provides retailers with advice through leaflets and telephone calls to improve awareness and to help the retention of responsible retailing principles. Retailers are also trained in engaging with customers about healthy playing – including direction to GamCare as appropriate – and about signs they should look out for to help identify players who may be at risk.
To ensure that retailers are benefiting from and acting on its training, the operator runs a healthy playing ‘mystery shopper’ programme, alongside the ‘Operation 18’ programme to ensure that retailers are correctly asking for proof of age. As a result of these initiatives, 94% of National Lottery retailers visited in 2022/23 successfully passed a healthy playing knowledge check. If a retailer does not pass these visits or checks, it is offered additional training.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many adult gaming centres have ceased trading during the past 12 months.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Gambling Commission’s Industry Statistics do not capture whether specific premises have closed during the reporting period; rather, they give an overview of all active gambling premises in Great Britain. These figures show that the number of adult gaming centres has increased between 2021/22 and 2022/23.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support students who have online problem gambling issues.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
A variety of initiatives are in place across the gambling regulatory framework, health services, and the educational curriculum to protect young people, and the wider public, from harmful gambling and to raise awareness of its risks.
The Gambling Commission requires all gambling operators to make information available to customers on how to gamble safely and how to access information on problem gambling and the support available. Most operators direct people to the charity GambleAware’s begambleaware.org site, which contains a wide range of information for everyone on risks, as well as links to advice and support, including the 24-hour National Gambling Helpline. The NHS webpage 'Help for problem gambling' also covers common indicators which suggest that people may be experiencing harmful gambling, as well as advice and links to treatment services.
In addition, support is provided specifically for children and young people. To prevent children and young people from suffering gambling-related harm later in life, since 2020 children have been taught about the risks relating to gambling, including the accumulation of debt, as part of the statutory Relationships, Sex and Health Education curriculum in England. The Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust charity provides free training for university staff and students’ unions and maintains a bespoke student website dedicated to help protect university students and young people from gambling harm.
In 2019, DCMS secured a commitment from industry to contribute £100 million over four years to problem gambling treatment. NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) are also continuing work to improve and expand specialist treatment services, with up to 15 new NHS clinics set to open by 2023/24.
His Majesty’s Government is closely considering the protections in place for children and young adults as part of the scope of its wide-ranging Review of the Gambling Act to ensure they are fit for the digital age. A White Paper setting out our next steps and proposals for reform will be published in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to safeguard people with autism from online harm.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We introduced the Online Safety Bill, which will protect people online, including those with autism, to Parliament on 17 March. Service providers in scope of the legislation will have to ensure that illegal content is removed swiftly and prevent children from harmful or inappropriate content. Major platforms will also need to set out clearly what legal content is acceptable for adult users on their services and enforce their terms and conditions consistently and transparently.
Companies must also ensure that their terms of service are clear and accessible. This will make it much easier for vulnerable adults, including people with autism, or where relevant, their carers, to understand which online services may be most appropriate for their needs.
Ofcom will be appointed as the new regulator overseeing the framework. Ofcom’s statutory duty will include a need to consider the vulnerability of individuals whose circumstances appear to put them in need of special protection. They will have enforcement powers available to use against companies which fail their duties, including fines or business disruption measures.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what recent steps they have taken to ensure that large technology organisations are complying with regulations on personal data.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
All organisations in the UK which process personal information, whether large or small, have to comply with the requirements of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. The legislation also applies to organisations based outside the UK which are processing UK residents’ data for the purposes of providing goods and services or monitoring behaviour.
The legislation is administered and enforced independently of HM Government by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO has a range of enforcement tools to tackle non-compliance, including the power to impose civil monetary penalties of up £17.5 million or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is greater. Details of enforcement action taken by the ICO can be found on its website.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the recovery of the UK tourism industry from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has provided over £35 billion of support in the form of tax reliefs, grants, and loans to the leisure, hospitality, and tourism sectors throughout the pandemic in recognition of the severe impact of COVID-19 on tourism across the UK.
In June the Government published a Tourism Recovery Plan setting out a comprehensive framework for rebuilding the sector, including an ambition to recover domestic tourism to pre- pandemic levels by the end of 2022 and inbound visitor volumes by the end of 2023 both at least a year faster than independent forecasts predict. The recently launched £8 million National Lottery Days Out scheme to encourage domestic trips in the off-peak autumn season is just one example of measures being put in place to support the sector at this time.
In addition to the Levelling Up Fund, the 101 Towns Deals, and the City and Growth Deals in Scotland and Wales, the October Budget announced the Government’s plans to support local high streets as they adapt and recover from the pandemic. The Government is introducing a new temporary business rates relief in England for eligible retail, hospitality, and leisure properties for 2022-23, worth almost £1.7 billion. Over 90% of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses will receive at least 50% off their business rates bills in 2022-23.
Asked by: Lord Browne of Belmont (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the measures in place to protect (1) young, and (2) vulnerable, people from problem online gambling.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
All online gambling operators must be licensed by the Gambling Commission and comply with the strict licence conditions including measures to protect children and vulnerable people. Importantly, this includes tough age verification requirements to ensure children cannot gamble online, and an obligation on operators to monitor data and intervene when customers show signs of a risk of harm.
In addition to this, the Government and the Gambling Commission have significantly strengthened the age verification requirements, banned gambling on credit cards, made online slots safer with a new game design code, mandated integration with Gamstop (the one-stop online self exclusion scheme) and introduced new rules on VIP schemes.
Building on this record, we are reviewing the Gambling Act 2005 to ensure it is fit for the digital age. As part of its broad scope, the Gambling Act Review is looking at the effectiveness of existing measures to ensure the protection of young and vulnerable people from the risks associated with online gambling. We are considering the evidence carefully and will publish a white paper outlining any conclusions and proposals for reform in due course.