Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much emergency covid-19 funding the Government has provided to (a) professional, (b) semi-professional, (c) amateur and (d) youth football in England since the start of the outbreak.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Sports and physical activity providers and facilities are at the heart of our communities, and play a crucial role in supporting adults and children to be active.
Government has provided unprecedented support to businesses through tax reliefs, cash grants and employee wage support, which many sport clubs have benefited from. An income scheme announced in July by the Secretary of State for Local Government, aims to support local authorities who have incurred irrecoverable loss of income from sales, fees and charge which they had reasonably budgeted for. On 22 October, the Government announced a £100m support fund for local authority leisure centres. In addition, Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund has also provided £210 million directly to support community sport clubs and exercise centres through this pandemic.
We are continuing to work with organisations to understand what they need and how we may be able to support them.
Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans he has to review the relationship between gambling companies and English football.
Answered by Nigel Adams
It is right that sporting organisations have the freedom to benefit commercially from their products and negotiate their own broadcasting and sponsorship deals.
But such organisations also have an important role to ensure the agreements they enter into are socially responsible and not detrimental to their fans. Gambling operators too are obliged to ensure that all their sponsorship and marketing activity is done responsibly and never targeted at children or vulnerable people.
The Government has committed to a further review of the Gambling Act to ensure it remains fit for the digital age. Further details will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many fines the Gambling Commission has issued to gambling businesses that sponsor Premier League football clubs; and what the sum total was of those fines in each year for which figures are available.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Gambling Commission has issued licences to 2,690 gambling operators. Government does not hold figures on how many of these operators have entered into commercial sponsorship agreements with Premier League football clubs but of the 20 football clubs who currently compete in that league, 10 have front of shirt sponsors who are gambling operators. None of the operators who are currently involved in shirt sponsorship arrangements with Premier League football clubs – either under their own brands or through ‘white label’ partnerships – have been fined by the Gambling Commission for breach of their Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice.
The Gambling Commission publishes details of regulatory action it has taken on its website, including a list of sanctions imposed upon operators which can be seen here https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/PDF/Regulatory-sanctions-register-operators.pdf
Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of banning betting groups from sponsoring football clubs.
Answered by Nigel Adams
It is right that sporting organisations have the freedom to benefit commercially from their products and negotiate their own broadcasting and sponsorship deals.
But such organisations also have an important role to ensure the agreements they enter into are socially responsible and not detrimental to their fans. Gambling operators too are obliged to ensure that all their sponsorship and marketing activity is done responsibly and never targeted at children or vulnerable people.
The Government has committed to a further review of the Gambling Act to ensure it remains fit for the digital age. Further details will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Flynn (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a mandatory levy on gambling firms to fund gambling addiction treatment, education and research.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Gambling Commission requires all operators licensed under the Gambling Act 2005 to make a contribution towards the research, prevention and treatment of gambling-related harm. Most operators donate to GambleAware, a charity which commissions dedicated support for problem gamblers, as well as research and awareness-raising on gambling-related harm. For the 2018-19 financial year, operators donated £9.6m to GambleAware, and industry body the Betting and Gaming Council estimates that operators gave a further £9.7m to other charities. For that same financial year, the gambling sector paid around £3bn to the exchequer in gambling taxes.
GambleAware commission support and treatment services for those suffering through gambling problems, including the National Gambling Helpline and counselling services provided by GamCare. GambleAware commissioned services complement those of NHS England who are scaling up treatment provision for problem gambling as part of the NHS Long-term plan. This will see up to 14 new specialist clinics open in the next 5 years, 2 of which have opened already. The Health Secretary has also announced that a cross-government addiction strategy, to include gambling, will be published in 2020.
In May 2018 the government published its response to the consultation on gaming machines and social responsibility measures, which made clear that if industry failed to provide the funding needed to meet current and future needs, government would consider all options, including a mandatory levy. Following this, in July 2019, five large gambling operators announced that they will increase the amount they give tenfold, from 0.1% to 1% of their gross profits over the next four years, and as part of this have committed to spend £100 million on treatment.