Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the Gambling Commission on financial transaction and IP blocking; and if he will make a statement.

DCMS officials and I hold regular discussions with the Gambling Commission on a range of matters including arrangements for enforcing the new licensing regime for remote gambling operators, which comes into force on 1 November 2014.

These enforcement arrangements include the disruption of illegal financial transactions. Companies such as MasterCard, Visa and PayPal are working with the Gambling Commission to ensure the termination of financial processing contracts with unlicensed gambling operators.

The Government and the Gambling Commission will assess the effectiveness of this approach, to enable Government to ensure that the Gambling Commission continues to have all of the enforcement tools that it needs.