Oral Answers to Questions

Peter Bottomley Excerpts

Thursday 29th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Karen Bradley]

The first part of the Leveson inquiry took place six years ago. Many things have happened since that time and many changes have taken place. The manifesto was clear, but there is a consultation process which I, as Secretary of State, have to go through.

[Sir Peter Bottomley (Worthing West) (Con)]

This House never intended vulnerable people in less-well-off areas to lose £100 several times a minute on fixed odds betting terminals. When will we have the opportunity to bring the stake down to £2?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Tracey Crouch)]

Mr Speaker, I know that you always encourage brevity in topical questions, so I apologise for giving a tediously processy response. Although we launched the review in October 2016, purdah interrupted the final stages of our consideration of the evidence received and the subsequent internal cross-Government process of approval and sign-off, so I am afraid we are back at the start of the process. As a consequence of that taking at least 12 weeks, I would not expect any further announcement until October at the earliest.