Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many private organisations have been found in breach of General Data Protection Regulations by the Information Commissioner's Office since May 2018.
Answered by Margot James
The Government takes the protection of personal data and the right to privacy extremely seriously.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the independent regulator for data protection in the UK and is responsible for regulating compliance with data protection legislation. The Information Commissioner has the power to serve fines on a data controller as a result of a data breach. Details of enforcement action, including fines, are published on the ICO website at www.ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will publish (a) a list of the public bodies and agencies who have been found in breach of the General Data Protection Regulations since they came into force in May 2018 and (b) details of any fines that may have been imposed by the Information Commissioner's Office as a result of any breaches.
Answered by Margot James
The Government takes the protection of personal data and the right to privacy extremely seriously.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the independent regulator for data protection in the UK and is responsible for regulating compliance with data protection legislation. The Information Commissioner has the power to serve fines on a data controller as a result of a data breach. Details of enforcement action, including fines, are published on the ICO website at www.ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department's policies of the recommendations in the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board’s report on children, young people and gambling: a case for action; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The Responsible Gambling Strategy Board are expert advisers to the Gambling Commission on safer gambling and gambling-related harm. Government welcomes the RGSB’s report on children and young people and the Commission’s response. Protecting children and other vulnerable people from harm was a key objective of our Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Review, which was published in May. Our Review, which was informed by advice from the RGSB and Commission, set out measures to increase existing protections around gaming machines, online gambling and gambling advertising. The Committees of Advertising Practice will publish further guidance on protecting children and young people later this year and additional research has been commissioned on the impact of marketing and advertising on them.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department plans to bring forward legislation to ensure that gambling websites introduce stronger third-party age verification checks for users.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The Gambling Commission has strong powers requiring licensees to have policies and procedures designed to prevent underage gambling.
Under existing requirements, operators have a period of 72 hours to carry out age-verification. However, as set out in the Government response to the Consultation on proposed changes to Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures on 17th May, the Gambling Commission intends to bring forward proposals to remove the current 72 hour window for age-verification checks. This would mean that age-verification must be completed before a customer is able to deposit funds and gamble.
The Commission has also considered the availability of free-to-play gambling-style games and plans to strengthen the rules by requiring licensed gambling operators to complete age-verification checks before consumers are able to access free-to-play games.
Together with the Minister for Digital and Creative Industries, I will chair a roundtable bringing together the technology and gambling sectors to look at enhancing protections online. The Commission will consult on tightening age verification requirements and is continuing to work with the video games industry to raise awareness of the risks of third parties using its products to provide illegal gambling facilities. We are considering the issue of 16 and 17 year olds playing National Lottery products as part of the design phase of the Fourth Licence.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect on young peoples' gambling behaviour of the advertising of gambling during live sporting events.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
We considered advertising as part of our Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility. The response was published on 17 May. Protecting vulnerable people was central to the review, and we recognised that having the right advertising protections in place was an important part of this.
As set out in the consultation document, children’s exposure to gambling adverts on TV has been declining year on year since 2013. The Gambling Commission’s Young People Survey in 2017 found that there was little evidence of a direct influence on gambling activity, with only 1% of young people in the survey saying advertising prompted them to start gambling or increase the amount they gamble. However, our response recognises that there are gaps in the evidence available, and outlined measures to fill these, including significant research commissioned by GambleAware into the impact of gambling advertising on children, young people and those vulnerable to harm.
There are already strong controls in place around gambling advertising, which must not be targeted at children. The response set out a package of initiatives to strengthen protections further. These include forthcoming guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) on protecting children and young people. We do not propose to bring forward legislative proposals, but we will keep these issues under review.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
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 plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ban the advertising of betting on pitch-side electronic advertising boards during televised sporting events.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
We considered advertising as part of our Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility. The response was published on 17 May. Protecting vulnerable people was central to the review, and we recognised that having the right advertising protections in place was an important part of this.
As set out in the consultation document, children’s exposure to gambling adverts on TV has been declining year on year since 2013. The Gambling Commission’s Young People Survey in 2017 found that there was little evidence of a direct influence on gambling activity, with only 1% of young people in the survey saying advertising prompted them to start gambling or increase the amount they gamble. However, our response recognises that there are gaps in the evidence available, and outlined measures to fill these, including significant research commissioned by GambleAware into the impact of gambling advertising on children, young people and those vulnerable to harm.
There are already strong controls in place around gambling advertising, which must not be targeted at children. The response set out a package of initiatives to strengthen protections further. These include forthcoming guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) on protecting children and young people. We do not propose to bring forward legislative proposals, but we will keep these issues under review.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing a 9pm watershed for all gambling advertising.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
We considered advertising as part of our Review of Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility. The response was published on 17 May. Protecting vulnerable people was central to the review, and we recognised that having the right advertising protections in place was an important part of this.
As set out in the consultation document, children’s exposure to gambling adverts on TV has been declining year on year since 2013. The Gambling Commission’s Young People Survey in 2017 found that there was little evidence of a direct influence on gambling activity, with only 1% of young people in the survey saying advertising prompted them to start gambling or increase the amount they gamble. However, our response recognises that there are gaps in the evidence available, and outlined measures to fill these, including significant research commissioned by GambleAware into the impact of gambling advertising on children, young people and those vulnerable to harm.
There are already strong controls in place around gambling advertising, which must not be targeted at children. The response set out a package of initiatives to strengthen protections further. These include forthcoming guidance from the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) on protecting children and young people. We do not propose to bring forward legislative proposals, but we will keep these issues under review.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the effect of a £2 maximum stake on B2 gaming machines on the number of (a) betting shop jobs that would potentially be lost and (b) betting shops that would potentially close.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The consultation on proposals for changes to gaming machines and social responsibility measures closed on 23 January and the responses are being considered. The Government’s response will be published in due course with a revised final impact assessment.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the potential switch from fixed odds betting terminals to online gambling if a £2 maximum stake is introduced.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
The consultation on proposals for changes to gaming machines and social responsibility measures closed on 23 January and the responses are being considered. The Government’s response will be published in due course with a revised final impact assessment.
Asked by: Anne Main (Conservative - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the effect of gaming machines on levels of gambling addiction.
Answered by Tracey Crouch
We are currently undertaking a review of gaming machines and social responsibility measures, which I announced in October 2016. The public consultation closed in December 2016, and we are currently reviewing the findings, which we will publish in October.