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 give local authorities increased powers to protect the public from gambling-related harms.

As set out in the response to the Consultation on proposed changes to Gaming Machines and Social Responsibility Measures on 17th May, the government considers that Local Authorities have sufficient existing powers in relation to gambling-related harm.

We encourage Local Authorities to continue making use of these powers to manage gambling at a local level, alongside working with the Gambling Commission to ensure the effective deployment of the existing tools at their disposal. We also welcome the guidance Tackling gambling related harm - a whole council approach, which was published this month by the Local Government Association.