Draft Gambling Act 2005 (Operating Licence Conditions) (Amendment) Regulations 2024
Draft Gambling Levy Regulations 2025
Jim Allister Excerpts(1 month ago)
General CommitteesRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Jim Allister (North Antrim) (TUV)
It is a pleasure to serve under you, Mr Twigg.
Could I take this opportunity to draw attention to a conundrum that exists in my part of the United Kingdom? Any company in Northern Ireland that wishes to advertise online gambling needs a licence from the Gambling Commission. None the less, the Gambling Commission insists that it should not perform any regulatory function in Northern Ireland. In consequence, there is no regulatory function and no control of online gambling, which is a growth industry. However, it has been established that Northern Ireland has an above average problem with gambling.
It could be said that gambling is a devolved matter; indeed, to the extent that I have set out, it is. However, the Northern Ireland Executive have utterly failed to establish any regulatory control, and the present legislation allows regulation only of terrestrial gambling, not of online gambling. I therefore ask the Minister to impress on the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland the fact that it needs to get up to speed and to bring in regulation to control online gambling and terrestrial gambling. Yesterday, in this vacuum of no regulation and no oversight, the Northern Ireland Assembly increased some maximum stakes. That is untenable.
Oral Answers to Questions
Jim Allister Excerpts(3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Marsha De Cordova
I thank my hon. Friend for her question on this incredibly important issue. I refer her to my previous answers, but it is also worth highlighting that, in recent years, the General Synod of the Church of England has twice voted by large majorities against changing the law on assisted suicide. The Association for Palliative Medicine and Hospice UK, to which most chaplains and Church-owned hospices are affiliated, remain opposed to any change in the law. The sector is particularly concerned about the funding challenges such a change would bring, as was highlighted in a Select Committee report. The report showed that funding for palliative care services fell by almost 5% in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, where legalised assisted dying is in place, compared with a 25% increase in countries where it has not been legalised.
Jim Allister (North Antrim) (TUV)
Does the Church Commissioner agree that hospices are about comforting the dying and surrounding them with care? Is that not the very antithesis of the state involving itself in sanctioning and assisting suicide?