Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of Financial Risk Assessments on consumer migration to the unregulated gambling market.

The Government remains committed to supporting the implementation of key measures in the 2023 white paper, including the introduction of Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs).

Following the conclusion of its pilot on FRAs, the Gambling Commission has continued to engage with gambling operators. As the independent regulator, the Gambling Commission will decide how to implement FRAs based on the best available evidence.

The existence of the online gambling illegal market does not mean that we should avoid appropriate controls on licensed operators. However, as stated in the white paper, we recognise that the threat of movement to the illegal market does exist. This is why we are working to give the Gambling Commission increased powers to support disruption and enforcement activity, and why we have announced £26 million of funding over 3 years to the Commission to enable them to increase their activity. We have also set up an Illegal Gambling Taskforce to test what more can be done to tackle the threats posed by the illegal market.

Any assessment of the impact of policies on taxation revenues is a matter for HM Treasury.