Horserace Betting Right

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Wednesday 20th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, it is often said that racing is the sport of kings, and I can think of no better time to debate this than on the eve of Her Majesty’s birthday. Racing makes a massive contribution to the rural economy of north Yorkshire and many other parts of the country in terms of employment, tourism and enjoyment of the countryside. It is obviously a source of concern that the yield from the horserace betting levy has fallen from an average of more than £106 million a decade ago to a forecast of approximately £55 million in 2015-16. This puts real pressure on the future of funding for racing. Yorkshire has nine of Britain’s 59 racecourses. Thirsk, Malton and Middleham represent some of Britain’s largest racehorse-training centres. They have been synonymous with racehorse training for 300 years and are home to some 45 licensed trainers and approximately 1,500 racehorses as well as to many stable lads and lasses.

I hope we can have an assurance from the Minister this evening that the Government will stick to and respect the very tight timetable and that a statutory instrument will be presented to both Houses to be voted on using the affirmative procedure before the end of this year after clearance by the Commission, following the precedent of the ruling on the French parafiscal levy on online horserace betting. When my colleague Matthew Hancock was elevated to the government Benches, I was delighted to steer an embryo Bill, which unfortunately did not pass all its stages, in the House of Commons. I am delighted that the Government have run with this. I hope that it will end the move to offshore betting and will secure the future for racing for many years to come.