Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether Gambling Impact Assessments enable local authorities to disapply the aim to permit presumption by creating a rebuttable presumption against the granting of new gambling premises licences in areas designated as being saturated with existing gambling premises.

Once introduced, gambling impact assessments will enable licensing authorities to adopt a presumption to reject applications in areas covered by the policy. This will mean that the presumption in favour of granting a licence resulting from the “aim to permit” principle will no longer apply in areas covered by a gambling impact assessment. However, licensing authorities will still be required to consider all premises applications even where a gambling impact assessment is in force.

On the 11^th August, the Prime Minister announced that DCMS will consult on repealing the “aim to permit” from the Gambling Act 2005. The consultation will be published in due course.