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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 3 July (WA 281), on what grounds they believe that the Horserace Betting Levy, as a state aid which predates the United Kingdom's accession to the European Union, is therefore compatible with the United Kingdom's obligations under European Union law and state aid rules.

The Horserace Betting Levy is a State Aid pursuant to Article 107 TFEU. As a permissible pre-accession measure, it does not need to be notified to the European Commission for as long as it remains unaltered. There has been no major change to the Levy since 1963 so it retains its pre-accession status. It is for this reason that we believe the Levy is compatible with the United Kingdom's obligations under European Union (EU) law and state aid rules. Any major change to the Levy, such as extending it to offshore remote betting operators, would constitute a substantive alteration to the existing scheme meaning that Government would have to notify the European Commission (EC). The Commission would then take a view as to the changed Levy's compatibility with Article 107 TFEU.