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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to increase maximum licensing fees for Track Betting Premises to local authorities.

The fees that licensing authorities collect for premises licence applications and annual renewals are used to cover administration and enforcement costs. In England and Wales, local authorities can set their own licensing fees for gambling premises, including track betting premises, up to a statutory maximum. In Scotland, licensing fees are set at a flat rate by Scottish Ministers.

The 2023 gambling white paper proposed increasing the cap on licensing authority premises fees in England and Wales. We are considering the best available evidence from a wide range of sources to make decisions on key measures from the gambling white paper.