Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will ask HMRC to instruct employers to indicate on payslips, along with an employee's national insurance contribution, the maximum amount of retained income they will be allowed to spend on gambling.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Review of the Gambling Act 2005 was launched on 8 December 2020. As set out in the Terms of Reference, the Review is wide-ranging in scope and will be evidence-led. The Call for Evidence will run until 31 March 2021, and we are seeking evidence from a broad range of interested groups and stakeholders.
The Review aims to ensure that the Gambling Act is fit for the digital age, and offers an opportunity to make sure that we have the balance right between protecting vulnerable people from gambling related harm, and respecting the freedom of adults to choose how they spend their money and leisure time.
The Gambling Commission’s consultation and call for evidence on Remote Customer Interaction discusses the important issues of identifying consumers in vulnerable situations and assessing affordability. The consultation and call for evidence responses will inform the Commission’s next steps for setting Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice. It may also inform the Gambling Commission’s advice to government on the Review of the Gambling Act 2005.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media platforms promote free speech while encouraging people to respect each other.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The UK is committed to upholding freedom of expression online. Our new online safety laws will safeguard pluralism and ensure internet users can continue to engage in robust debate online.
Under the new regulatory framework, both Ofcom and in-scope companies will have duties relating to freedom of expression, for which they can be held to account. The largest social media platforms will be required to have clear and accessible terms and conditions, and to enforce their terms and conditions consistently and transparently. Furthermore, new obligations for transparency and user reporting will enable users to more effectively understand and appeal content removal. This will both empower adult users to keep themselves safe online, and protect freedom of expression by preventing companies from arbitrarily removing content.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent estimate the Government has made of the proportion of people who gamble who are deemed to be problem gamblers; what financial contribution the Gambling sector has made to support problem gamblers; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Combined Health Survey data for 2016 estimated the rate of problem gambling amongst adults in Britain who had gambled in the past year to be 1.2%. The 2018 Health Survey for England estimated a problem gambling rate of 1% amongst adult past-year gamblers.
Gambling operators licensed by the Gambling Commission are required to make a contribution to fund research, prevention or treatment of problem gambling. The Gambling Commission publishes a list of approved recipients of these donations, and will soon publish its first set of annual data detailing the value of donations each has received. Most operators choose to give to the charity GambleAware, which received more than £10 million in donations during the 2019/20 financial year.
In July 2019, the government secured a commitment from five large operators for a tenfold increase in their contributions to the research, prevention and treatment of problem gambling over four years, rising from 0.1% to 1% of gross gambling yield. This included a commitment to spend £100 million on treatment over this period. In June 2020 it was announced that GambleAware would use these funds to expand existing treatment services. Industry body the Betting and Gaming Council has set out a planned schedule for donations which will see combined contributions from those operators involved in the commitment rise to £5 million in the financial year 2020/21, £10 million in 2021/22, £25 million in 2022/23, and £35 million in 2023/24, with an additional £25 million to be spread across the financial years 2021-23.
GambleAware is an independent charity which commissions a wide network of gambling-specific treatment services including a specialist NHS gambling clinic in London and the NHS Northern Gambling Service. Its forthcoming Strategic Commissioning Plan, due to be published in April 2021, will set out its objectives for commissioning treatment services over the next five years. It will commision additional treatment provision to complement NHS services, which are also being scaled up as part of the NHS Long-Term Plan. Up to 14 new specialist NHS gambling clinics are planned to open by 2024, with three already accepting patients. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) remains committed to the expansion and alignment of existing treatment provision for gambling-related harms, and continues to work collaboratively with the NHS and GambleAware to ensure effective use of the additional £100 million of industry funding allocated for treatment over the next 4 years.
The government launched its Review of the Gambling Act 2005 on 8 December with the publication of a Call for Evidence. As part of the wide scope of that Review, the government has called for evidence on the most effective means of recouping the regulatory and societal costs of gambling from operators.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the relationship is between the Gambling Commission's consultation on Remote customer interaction and the Government's recently announced review the Gambling Act 2005.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government has announced a review of the Gambling Act 2005 to ensure it is fit for the digital age. As set out in the Call for Evidence which launched on December 8, technology can play a role in helping operators identify customers at risk of harm and targeting interventions. While many online operators already use technology for this purpose, we are calling for evidence on the effectiveness of existing online protections in preventing gambling harms, and this will include a consideration of whether and how technology can be better used to that end.
The Call for Evidence will be open until 31 March 2021, and further details, including how to make a contribution, can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-gambling-act-2005-terms-of-reference-and-call-for-evidence/review-of-the-gambling-act-2005-terms-of-reference-and-call-for-evidence.
The work of the Gambling Commission as industry regulator continues alongside the Review. Its consultation and call for evidence on Remote Customer Interaction covers issues of identifying consumers in vulnerable situations and assessing affordability, and calls for views on how to balance consumer protections and consumer freedom. The consultation and call for evidence responses will inform the Commission’s next steps for setting Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice and may also inform its advice to government on the Review of the Gambling Act 2005.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to ensure that the Government's review of the Gambling Act 2005 makes an assessment of how technology can be used to identify problem gamblers whilst maintaining access to gambling for other gamblers.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government has announced a review of the Gambling Act 2005 to ensure it is fit for the digital age. As set out in the Call for Evidence which launched on December 8, technology can play a role in helping operators identify customers at risk of harm and targeting interventions. While many online operators already use technology for this purpose, we are calling for evidence on the effectiveness of existing online protections in preventing gambling harms, and this will include a consideration of whether and how technology can be better used to that end.
The Call for Evidence will be open until 31 March 2021, and further details, including how to make a contribution, can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-gambling-act-2005-terms-of-reference-and-call-for-evidence/review-of-the-gambling-act-2005-terms-of-reference-and-call-for-evidence.
The work of the Gambling Commission as industry regulator continues alongside the Review. Its consultation and call for evidence on Remote Customer Interaction covers issues of identifying consumers in vulnerable situations and assessing affordability, and calls for views on how to balance consumer protections and consumer freedom. The consultation and call for evidence responses will inform the Commission’s next steps for setting Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice and may also inform its advice to government on the Review of the Gambling Act 2005.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of (a) recent trends in the level of participation in black market gambling in Sweden and (b) the potential implications for his policies of those recent trends.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government monitors trends and developments in gambling markets in other jurisdictions where they might be relevant for the regulation of gambling in Great Britain, and is aware of reports claiming an increase in gambling participation with unlicensed operators in Sweden. Our Review of the Gambling Act 2005 was launched last month and issues around black market gambling are included in its wide scope. The Review will be evidence led, and we have called for evidence on the extent of the black market and its accessibility to consumers, as well as whether the Gambling Commission has the powers and resources it needs to continue to tackle the black market effectively. We welcome evidence from other jurisdictions.
The Call for Evidence will be open until 31 March 2021, and further details, including how to make a contribution, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-the-gambling-act-2005-terms-of-reference-and-call-for-evidence/review-of-the-gambling-act-2005-terms-of-reference-and-call-for-evidence.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish the (a) statutory and (b) non-statutory public inquiries being undertaken by his Department.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has no statutory or non-statutory public inquiries being undertaken at present.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans the Government has to tackle social media platforms which promote harmful content relating to suicide and self-harm.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The Online Harms White Paper set out government’s plans to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users, enforced by an independent regulator. As part of our plans, companies will be required to take action to address harmful suicide and self-harm content that provides graphic details of suicide methods and self-harming, including encouragement of self-harm and suicide.
There are already arrangements between companies and charities to improve the identification and removal of content when it is reported, and services that signpost help and supportive content to users. The Samaritans has a strategic partnership with social media companies and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC). The partnership works together to set guidance on moderating suicide and self-harm content, and supporting users to stay safe online.