Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to support the promotion of the greyhound racing industry; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government acknowledges the contribution that greyhound racing makes to our economy. There are 21 licensed stadiums in Great Britain, regulated by the main industry regulatory body, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB). The GBGB have estimated that the British greyhound industry employs over 7,000 people across the country, with an annual turnover estimated at £2.6 billion. In 2019/20, betting on greyhound racing raised £35m through the General Betting Duty.
The GBGB receives funds through the British Greyhound Racing Fund (BGRF) in the form of voluntary contributions from bookmakers on betting turnover on licensed greyhound racing. In January 2019 the Government announced that it had secured a new funding commitment from five of the largest online bookmakers, to help ensure the welfare of greyhounds continues to be protected and improved. This was in addition to the existing voluntary payments made to the BGRF from most betting operators that benefit from greyhound racing, which sit alongside commercial deals between the betting and racing industries. In March 2021 the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) announced a further four bookmakers had agreed to begin contributing to the Fund. This means that every member of the BGC who offers bets on greyhound racing now contributes to the Fund.
The government has welcomed the GBGB’s welfare targets, contained in the Greyhound Commitment and its long term, national welfare strategy, ‘A Good Life for Every Greyhound’.
The department has held discussions with the greyhound racing industries on a range of issues and will continue to encourage any remaining bookmakers that have not signed up to the voluntary arrangements to do so.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government is taking steps to increase regulations on animal welfare within greyhound racing.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal Welfare Act 2006 already allows action to be taken where there is evidence of cruelty to an animal or a failure to provide for that animal's welfare needs. This includes where greyhounds are raced at greyhound racing tracks or kept at trainers' kennels. Further to these general provisions, specific welfare standards, including the requirement to have a veterinary surgeon present while dogs are running, for all greyhound racing tracks in England are set out in the Welfare of Racing Greyhound Regulations 2010. We have no plans at this time to introduce more regulation.
Asked by: Lord Lipsey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the estimated overall contribution of licensed greyhound racing to HM Treasury in the latest available year; and in the two years before that, what is the estimated taxation revenue received through (1) bookmakers who offer bets on greyhound racing, and (2) directly from greyhound racing.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
HMRC does not hold information on the breakdown of General Betting Duty revenue by forms of betting such as greyhound racing, horseracing and football.
Revenue from General Betting Duty largely paid by bookmakers on all forms of betting was £586 million in 2019 to 2020, £595 million in 2020 to 2021 and £649 million in 2021 to 2022.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of (a) the current state of and (b) regulation governing greyhound racing in the UK.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The main regulations covering the welfare of racing greyhounds, the Welfare of Racing Greyhounds Regulations 2010, along with their enforcement by the main industry regulatory body the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), were most recently reviewed in 2016. The review was undertaken by Defra with input from the House of Commons’ Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee (EFRA). The review found the 2010 Regulations had been effective, when assessed against their original objectives, in improving welfare standards at greyhound racing tracks in England and improving the traceability of greyhounds during their racing careers. GBGB is accredited by the UK Accreditation Service in relation to its greyhound racing track licensing and inspection processes.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has taken steps to ensure care for racing greyhounds once those animals retire.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s policy has been to work with the main industry regulatory body, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), to address welfare concerns about the care of greyhounds once they retire, as well as reducing the number of deaths of greyhounds. The GBGB has introduced initiatives such as the Injury Recovery Scheme which provides financial support to trainers to treat career-ending injuries to greyhounds where otherwise they might be put to sleep; and the Greyhound Retirement Scheme which attaches a £400 bond to each greyhound at the point of registration, paid for jointly by the owner and GBGB, in order to pay for rehoming costs at the end of a dog’s racing life. HM Government has welcomed these initiatives and the latest set of retirement and fatality figures published by GBGB in May this year, showed the lowest ever reported number of track fatalities (120 or 0.03% of total dog runs) and the percentage of dogs homed/retained at the end of their racing careers remaining at approximately 94% (some 6014 greyhounds out of 6373 that ceased GBGB racing in 2021). HM Government wants to see this progress continue.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds North West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to reduce the number of deaths of dogs in greyhound racing.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s policy has been to work with the main industry regulatory body, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), to address welfare concerns about the care of greyhounds once they retire, as well as reducing the number of deaths of greyhounds. The GBGB has introduced initiatives such as the Injury Recovery Scheme which provides financial support to trainers to treat career-ending injuries to greyhounds where otherwise they might be put to sleep; and the Greyhound Retirement Scheme which attaches a £400 bond to each greyhound at the point of registration, paid for jointly by the owner and GBGB, in order to pay for rehoming costs at the end of a dog’s racing life. HM Government has welcomed these initiatives and the latest set of retirement and fatality figures published by GBGB in May this year, showed the lowest ever reported number of track fatalities (120 or 0.03% of total dog runs) and the percentage of dogs homed/retained at the end of their racing careers remaining at approximately 94% (some 6014 greyhounds out of 6373 that ceased GBGB racing in 2021). HM Government wants to see this progress continue.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to (a) promote and (b) help protect Greyhound racing.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
In January 2019 the government announced an increased funding commitment from bookmakers to support the Greyhound Board of Great Britain’s (GBGB) efforts to improve welfare, and since 2021 every member of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) who offers bets on greyhound racing has contributed to the British Racing Greyhound Fund. The BGC represents approximately 90% of the UK’s licensed betting and gaming businesses.
The Government is also aware of the impact of Covid on greyhound racing and a preliminary allocation of £1.4m in loans was made available from the Sports Survival Package to help mitigate it. Greyhound racing has also been eligible to access pan-economy support provided by the government including the business rates holiday for leisure industry businesses, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits for greyhound racing of introducing a mandatory levy on races on a similar basis to horse-racing.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2021, every member of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) who offers bets on greyhound racing has contributed to the British Racing Greyhound Fund. The BGC represents approximately 90% of the UK’s licensed betting and gaming businesses. In the financial year 2020-21, £6.75m was collected from bookmakers' voluntary contributions.
The Government has no current plans to introduce a mandatory levy and will continue to encourage any remaining bookmakers that have not signed up to the voluntary arrangements to follow suit. We expect both the betting and the greyhound racing sectors to make sure that greyhound welfare is safeguarded and remains at the heart of the sport.
Asked by: Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many times (1) ministers, and (2) officials, from the department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have met representatives of the gambling reform groups or survivors of gambling harm (a) in person, and (b) through video call, since June 2020; and what was the nature of those discussions.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Ministers and officials have regular meetings with the industry and other gambling stakeholders to support ongoing work and policy development. There has also been a wide-ranging series of meetings to support the ongoing Gambling Act Review which was launched in December 2020 with a Call for Evidence.
Records of ministerial meetings are published quarterly and are available on gov.uk. The meetings with the gambling industry and its representatives have covered a very wide range of issues, for instance the impact of Covid-19 closures on the land-based industry and the measures the Government was taking to support the economy, measures the industry is taking to make gambling safer, and industry evidence on the Act Review. A number of these have also been introductory meetings with new Ministers.
Officials in the gambling policy team have had around sixty meetings with industry in that period covering the above topics, particularly the impact of Covid-19, and also other areas such as animal welfare in horse and greyhound racing, the implications of Brexit and supply chain disruption, and delivery of previous commitments made by industry, such as the £100m to support treatment over four years.
Ministers have met a wide range of non-industry gambling stakeholders over the same period. This has included six meetings with gambling harm campaign groups or people with personal experience of gambling harm (including roundtables with many individuals or organisations present), thirteen meetings with parliamentarians campaigning for reform, and three meetings with gambling researchers and education and treatment providers. We do not have a record of which meetings were conducted remotely or in person.
Officials in the gambling policy team have had over one hundred further meetings with non-industry gambling related stakeholders since June 2020. This has included eleven with campaign groups or people with personal experience, thirty three with those working primarily on gambling research, seven with those primarily related to gambling harm education, seventeen with treatment providers for gambling related harm, and three meetings with think-tanks. Many of these meetings were in connection with the Gambling Act Review, discussing individuals’ or groups' priorities and the evidence they presented.
Asked by: Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many times (1) ministers, and (2) officials, from the department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport have met representatives of the gambling industry since June 2020; and what was the nature of those discussions.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Ministers and officials have regular meetings with the industry and other gambling stakeholders to support ongoing work and policy development. There has also been a wide-ranging series of meetings to support the ongoing Gambling Act Review which was launched in December 2020 with a Call for Evidence.
Records of ministerial meetings are published quarterly and are available on gov.uk. The meetings with the gambling industry and its representatives have covered a very wide range of issues, for instance the impact of Covid-19 closures on the land-based industry and the measures the Government was taking to support the economy, measures the industry is taking to make gambling safer, and industry evidence on the Act Review. A number of these have also been introductory meetings with new Ministers.
Officials in the gambling policy team have had around sixty meetings with industry in that period covering the above topics, particularly the impact of Covid-19, and also other areas such as animal welfare in horse and greyhound racing, the implications of Brexit and supply chain disruption, and delivery of previous commitments made by industry, such as the £100m to support treatment over four years.
Ministers have met a wide range of non-industry gambling stakeholders over the same period. This has included six meetings with gambling harm campaign groups or people with personal experience of gambling harm (including roundtables with many individuals or organisations present), thirteen meetings with parliamentarians campaigning for reform, and three meetings with gambling researchers and education and treatment providers. We do not have a record of which meetings were conducted remotely or in person.
Officials in the gambling policy team have had over one hundred further meetings with non-industry gambling related stakeholders since June 2020. This has included eleven with campaign groups or people with personal experience, thirty three with those working primarily on gambling research, seven with those primarily related to gambling harm education, seventeen with treatment providers for gambling related harm, and three meetings with think-tanks. Many of these meetings were in connection with the Gambling Act Review, discussing individuals’ or groups' priorities and the evidence they presented.