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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how she will ensure Financial Risk Assessments are carried out in a frictionless manner as stated in the Gambling Act Review White Paper.

The Government remains committed to supporting the implementation of key measures in the 2023 white paper, including the introduction of Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs), which are not currently in place.

The white paper recognised the “chilling effect” that asking customers for bank documents can have. This is why it set out an alternative approach to assessing financial risk which would be much more frictionless.

The white paper proposed less than 3% of customer accounts would undergo an assessment – targeting the highest spending accounts. The Gambling Commission’s pilot showed that of these 3%, 97% would have a frictionless assessment process. Those customers would not be required to take any actions, including providing documents. Operators would only be unable to conduct an assessment in a frictionless way for 1 customer in every 1,000 accounts, significantly better than anticipated in the white paper. As the independent regulator, the Gambling Commission will decide how to implement FRAs based on the best available evidence.