Gambling Act 2005

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Wednesday 9th February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Flight (Con)]

My Lords, I must ask—

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

My Lords—

[Noble Lords]

Grade!

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

I have never been so popular.

[Lord West of Spithead (Lab)]

It could all change.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)]

More ships!

I thank my noble friend the Minister for that response. One of the lessons of the implications of the outdated nature of the 2005 Gambling Act, which the Government are addressing, is that there was a serious lack of accountability on the Gambling Commission. It had many powers to stop many of the abuses that have led to such tragedies as we have heard and as we read about in the newspapers almost every day. We are very interested to know what the Government can do to increase the accountability of the regulator in this sector.

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

The Gambling Act review is looking at the Gambling Commission’s powers and resources, and how it uses them. The Commission has a new chairman and chief executive, who will be working closely with DCMS as they implement their vision for the organisation, but between April 2020 and March 2021 the commission imposed more than £30 million in financial penalties for breaches of its licensing conditions.