Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much money was made from fixed-odds betting terminals located on Ministry of Defence property in (1) 2021, (2) 2022, (3) 2023, and (4) 2024; and who was the beneficiary of any such money.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) fixed odds betting terminals, and (2) electronic gaming machines, are on property owned by the Ministry of Defence.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Army and Royal Air Force have confirmed that all such machines have been removed from their property. The Royal Navy has confirmed that this work is in the final stages.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what information her Department holds on the number of fixed-odds betting terminals there were in Midlothian constituency in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Fixed-odds betting terminals refer to Category B2 gaming machines. In April 2019, the maximum stakes on these machines were reduced from £100 to £2. Following this reduction in maximum stakes there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of physical B2 machines in operation. The Gambling Commission’s industry statistics indicate that from April 2020 to March 2023 there were zero Category B2 gaming machines in operation across Great Britain.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with his Northern Irish counterpart on the operation of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) in Northern Ireland following the reduction in the maximum stake on FOBTs in Great Britain to £2 in 2019.
Answered by John Whittingdale
Gambling in Northern Ireland is a devolved issue regulated under the Betting, Gaming, Lotteries and Amusements (NI) Order 1985. I have not discussed the operation of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals following the 2019 stake cut with my Northern Irish counterpart.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what regulatory impact assessments have been made of measures taken to deliver the Gambling Act 2005’s prevention of harm licensing objective since the changes adopted via the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014, excluding those changes in respect of the Fixed Odds Betting Terminals stake reduction.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The licensing objectives in the Gambling Act 2005 are principles to be applied by the Gambling Commission and other licensing authorities in exercising their functions under the Act. The Commission is required to permit gambling, in so far as it thinks it reasonably consistent with pursuit of the licensing objectives: a) preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime, b) ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way, and c) protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
Regulatory Impact Assessments are produced by the government as a tool to assess the impact of government intervention and inform policy decision-making. The Gambling Commission is required under the Enterprise Act 2016 to produce Business Impact Target (BIT) assessments for regulatory measures that it introduces but these relate to the impact on business rather than the licensing objectives. However, as part of its consultation process, the Commission seeks information from stakeholders on the impact and value of its proposals. It also works with a wide range of partners to evaluate the impact of safer gambling measures, in connection with the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harm.
The Commission is currently working to assess the initial impact of the ban on credit cards, including with the Gambling Research Exchange (GREO) on an evaluation of consumer behaviour following the ban. In April 2021, it published a new Corporate Strategy which includes a commitment to developing a framework to evaluate the impact of its work.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what regulatory impact assessments have been made of measures taken to deliver the Gambling Act 2005’s no association with crime licensing objective since the changes adopted via the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014, excluding those changes in respect of the Fixed Odds Betting Terminals stake reduction.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The licensing objectives in the Gambling Act 2005 are principles to be applied by the Gambling Commission and other licensing authorities in exercising their functions under the Act. The Commission is required to permit gambling, in so far as it thinks it reasonably consistent with pursuit of the licensing objectives: a) preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime, b) ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way, and c) protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
Regulatory Impact Assessments are produced by the government as a tool to assess the impact of government intervention and inform policy decision-making. The Gambling Commission is required under the Enterprise Act 2016 to produce Business Impact Target (BIT) assessments for regulatory measures that it introduces but these relate to the impact on business rather than the licensing objectives. However, as part of its consultation process, the Commission seeks information from stakeholders on the impact and value of its proposals. It also works with a wide range of partners to evaluate the impact of safer gambling measures, in connection with the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harm.
The Commission is currently working to assess the initial impact of the ban on credit cards, including with the Gambling Research Exchange (GREO) on an evaluation of consumer behaviour following the ban. In April 2021, it published a new Corporate Strategy which includes a commitment to developing a framework to evaluate the impact of its work.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what regulatory impact assessments have been made of measures taken to deliver the Gambling Act 2005’s fair and open licensing objective since the changes adopted via the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014, excluding those changes in respect of the Fixed Odds Betting Terminals stake reduction.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The licensing objectives in the Gambling Act 2005 are principles to be applied by the Gambling Commission and other licensing authorities in exercising their functions under the Act. The Commission is required to permit gambling, in so far as it thinks it reasonably consistent with pursuit of the licensing objectives: a) preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime, b) ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way, and c) protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
Regulatory Impact Assessments are produced by the government as a tool to assess the impact of government intervention and inform policy decision-making. The Gambling Commission is required under the Enterprise Act 2016 to produce Business Impact Target (BIT) assessments for regulatory measures that it introduces but these relate to the impact on business rather than the licensing objectives. However, as part of its consultation process, the Commission seeks information from stakeholders on the impact and value of its proposals. It also works with a wide range of partners to evaluate the impact of safer gambling measures, in connection with the National Strategy to Reduce Gambling Harm.
The Commission is currently working to assess the initial impact of the ban on credit cards, including with the Gambling Research Exchange (GREO) on an evaluation of consumer behaviour following the ban. In April 2021, it published a new Corporate Strategy which includes a commitment to developing a framework to evaluate the impact of its work.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the most significant evidence received by his Department was in support of reducing the maximum stake on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals after an assessment of the 2016 review and prior to the 2018 stake reduction announcement.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The licensing objectives in the Gambling Act 2005 are principles to be applied by the Gambling Commission and other licensing authorities in exercising their functions under the Act. The Commission is required to permit gambling in so far as it thinks it reasonably consistent with pursuit of the licensing objectives: a) preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime, b) ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way, and c) protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
The government’s Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures began with the publication of a call for evidence in autumn 2016, including on whether changes were needed to stake and prize limits on gaming machines. The objective of the Review was to determine what, if any, changes were needed to strike the right balance between socially responsible growth and the protection of consumers and wider communities. The call for evidence was followed by a consultation paper published in October 2017, with the government’s decision to cut stakes on B2 machines in betting shops to £2 announced in the government response to the consultation in May 2018. The stake cut was in due course implemented via statutory instrument in April 2019.
The government gave careful consideration to a wide range of evidence in the course of the Gaming Machines Review and this evidence and government’s analysis and conclusions were set out in the consultation, government response and the accompanying impact assessment, published at
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-proposals-for-changes-to-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures. Evidence submitted to the call for evidence was also published at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/call-for-evidence-review-of-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has made an assessment of (a) whether the stake reduction on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals contributed towards achieving the Gambling Act 2005’s licensing objectives and (b) the effect of the time taken between the 2016 review and implementation in 2019 of the stake reduction on the achievement of those licensing objectives.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The licensing objectives in the Gambling Act 2005 are principles to be applied by the Gambling Commission and other licensing authorities in exercising their functions under the Act. The Commission is required to permit gambling in so far as it thinks it reasonably consistent with pursuit of the licensing objectives: a) preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime, b) ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way, and c) protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
The government’s Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures began with the publication of a call for evidence in autumn 2016, including on whether changes were needed to stake and prize limits on gaming machines. The objective of the Review was to determine what, if any, changes were needed to strike the right balance between socially responsible growth and the protection of consumers and wider communities. The call for evidence was followed by a consultation paper published in October 2017, with the government’s decision to cut stakes on B2 machines in betting shops to £2 announced in the government response to the consultation in May 2018. The stake cut was in due course implemented via statutory instrument in April 2019.
The government gave careful consideration to a wide range of evidence in the course of the Gaming Machines Review and this evidence and government’s analysis and conclusions were set out in the consultation, government response and the accompanying impact assessment, published at
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-proposals-for-changes-to-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures. Evidence submitted to the call for evidence was also published at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/call-for-evidence-review-of-gaming-machines-and-social-responsibility-measures.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the outcome of HMRC v The Rank Group PLC; Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Ltd and Others, what steps HMRC has taken to make appropriate repayments to operators; and whether HMRC is prioritising the repayment of operators in a particular order.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Revenue and Customs Brief 5 (2020): VAT treatment on fixed odds betting terminals and gaming machines published on 26 May 2020 (updated on 26 June 2020) sets out the process for claimants in relation to the Rank Group PLC and Done Brothers (Cash Betting) Ltd and Others litigation to be repaid the sums due to them. Repayments have now started and will continue. There has been no prioritisation of any particular claimant.