Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 07 Jul 2022
Oral Answers to Questions
"In Lancashire, our brilliant police and crime commissioner, Andrew Snowden, is funding a variety of projects to reduce the number of rape and serious sexual offences. They include dedicated specialist support services for victims, and Operation Night Guardian, which focuses on the night economy. How is the CPS in Lancashire …..."Scott Benton - View Speech
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Written Question
Monday 27th June 2022
Asked by:
Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question
to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the report by Public Health England entitled Gambling-related harms evidence review: the economic and social cost of harms, published in September 2021, if she will make an assessment of the whether Public Health England conducted methodologically robust research when it estimated that there was a £1.27 billion annual economic burden of harmful gambling.
Answered by Chris Philp
- Shadow Home Secretary
Public Health England (PHE)’s evidence review on gambling-related harms estimated the annual cost of harmful gambling to society to be between £841 million and £2.2 billion, or approximately £1.27 billion, however the lack of quantitative causal evidence for some of the harms described did not allow PHE to make a direct assessment of the cost of gambling harm specifically. While the review acknowledged that further research is needed to determine costs attributable directly to gambling-related harm rather than those associated with people who are problem or at-risk gamblers, it is the most comprehensive review of the evidence on gambling-related harm and its associated costs, and has been carefully considered as an important input to our Review of the Gambling Act 2005. We will publish our white paper in the coming weeks.
Speech in Westminster Hall - Wed 22 Jun 2022
Antisemitism and Other Racism in Football
"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. Racism in football has reduced dramatically over the last few decades. Indeed, we are thankfully in a different place to where we were in the 1970s and 1980s. However, we must be under no illusions; racism still does exist …..."Scott Benton - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 07 Jun 2022
Statutory Gambling Levy
"The problem with having a statutory levy is that it would hit land-based gambling companies—casinos, bingo halls and the high street shops—when they are just emerging from the pandemic. I appreciate that the hon. Lady suggested they would be levied at a slightly different rate, but the problem is that …..."Scott Benton - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 07 Jun 2022
Statutory Gambling Levy
"It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I refer hon. Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and thank the hon. Member for Swansea East (Carolyn Harris) for securing the debate.
With the current review of the Gambling Act 2005 drawing to …..."Scott Benton - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 07 Jun 2022
Statutory Gambling Levy
"There is clearly more work that we can do in this area, but it would help if the NHS had a long-term strategy for dealing with the issue, which it lacks at present. I will say more on that point in a few moments.
Under current arrangements, all companies regulated …..."Scott Benton - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 07 Jun 2022
Statutory Gambling Levy
"The issue has been around for decades. Obviously, the gambling review is long awaited. Hopefully, that will help to address the issue, but it is unmistakable that the industry has taken voluntary steps over the years to try to tackle the problem. What we need is a consensus on the …..."Scott Benton - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 07 Jun 2022
Statutory Gambling Levy
"I suspect the hon. Lady is referring to her opening remarks. I appreciate that she spoke about the differential system between online operators, which she suggested were the worst polluters, and land-based operators. The problem is that many land-based operators run on a very small profit margin, so even a …..."Scott Benton - View Speech
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Speech in Westminster Hall - Tue 07 Jun 2022
Statutory Gambling Levy
"Time is short, so I will not directly respond to the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker), but I suspect he knows my feelings about an additional statutory levy, which is essentially a tax. It could create problems for horse-racing at a time …..."Scott Benton - View Speech
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Written Question
Tuesday 17th May 2022
Asked by:
Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question
to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the Government has considered introducing a non-statutory levy on the betting and gaming industry for research, education and treatment which has a lower rate for land-based operators and takes account of the higher fixed costs and numbers of jobs they support compared to online operators.
Answered by Chris Philp
- Shadow Home Secretary
The Government’s Review of the Gambling Act called for evidence on how best to recoup the regulatory and societal costs of problem gambling. We will publish a white paper in the coming weeks.