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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Jolly on 4 March 2014 (HL Deb, col 1316) that the Gambling Commission was aiming to make "significant progress within six months towards the establishment of a national remote gambling exclusion scheme", what progress was made in that six-month period; what progress was made in the subsequent six-month period; and when the national remote gambling exclusion scheme will commence.

Following a public consultation from August to October 2014, the Gambling Commission introduced a new licence condition which will require online gambling operators, other than society lottery operators who do not offer instant win games, to participate in a national online self-exclusion scheme once it is developed and available.

The Commission and the Remote Gambling Association have established a Working Group, which is working through the technical, operational and legal issues that need to be resolved in order to create a robust scheme.

The Commission will be publishing a briefing note shortly. A consultation will be issued this summer seeking views on the draft architecture of the scheme, its estimated cost and how the scheme should be managed and funded. Following the consultation there will be a competitive tender process for the development and running of the scheme.

As previously indicated the Commission aims to have the scheme operational by 2017.