Horserace Betting Right

Lord Smith of Hindhead Excerpts

Wednesday 20th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Smith of Hindhead (Con)]

My Lords, I rise to make a contribution to the debate which will be—using racing terms, which everyone else has employed—more of a six-furlong gallop than a one-mile chase, with a couple of questions that I suppose could be described as hurdles, as my noble friend Lord Astor did, but, I suspect, ones that are not too high for the Minister to clear. My apologies in advance if I echo some of the points already made, or make some points that other noble Lords were hoping to make.

Like many other members of your Lordships’ House, I support the UK racehorse industry. We all know the figures, but they are worth repeating as they are really impressive. It has almost 6 million spectators per year—the most popular spectator sport after football. Horseracing contributes £3.45 billion to UK plc each year and, of that, the total fiscal contribution from betting to racing stands at about £270 million per year. The combined direct, indirect and associated employment of the industry runs north of 85,000 people.

As horseracing is such a popular British sport, it is only right that we do all we can to ensure that, as far as possible, it continues to be profitable, successful and beneficial for everyone concerned—both centre stage and behind the scenes—who puts on such great sporting entertainment, enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people every week of the year.

It is for this reason that I support the work the Government have done over the past few years on rethinking the racing levy, a rethink that is long overdue, bearing in mind that the current arrangements are based primarily on the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963, as amended. I should point out that I, too, might need to have a long overdue rethink, having had a disastrous Grand National this year, ignoring my grandfather’s advice, which I mentioned in another debate, that the best way to double your money is to fold it once and keep it in your pocket.

Noble Lords who take an interest in this subject are aware that the levy is a complex structure, involving many stakeholders with many different needs, but I consider the Government’s new funding arrangement to be both sensible and fair. I particularly praise Ministers in the other place and my noble friend on the move to include offshore betting operators in the contributions which are collected. These operators benefit from our UK racing, so it is right that they should also contribute to the industry, just as betting operators in the UK have to. For far too long, operators in the UK have been trading at a disadvantage, and I am therefore happy to see the playing field being levelled—something that is essential in any form of fair gaming.

I hope that the principle of collecting contributions from offshore betting operators who benefit from UK players and sports can be extended to other forms of gambling, but I appreciate that that is a debate for another time.

I am aware that there are changes to the role of the Horseracing Betting Levy Board whereby, under the new plan, the board will be responsible only for setting the levy—or, as it will be known, the racing right—and enforcing it. A racing authority will be established to be in charge of distributing funds.