(Geographical Distribution of Casino Premises Licences) Order 2007
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HOUSE OF LORDS Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee 13th Report of Session 2006-07 Drawing special attention to: Draft Gambling (Geographical Distribution of Casino Premises Licences) Order 2007 Volume I: Report and oral evidence (Written evidence published separately as HL Paper 67–II) Ordered to be printed 13 March and published 20 March 2007 London : The Stationery Office Limited £price HL Paper 67–I The Select Committee on the Merits of Statutory Instruments The Committee has the following terms of reference: (1) The Committee shall, subject to the exceptions in paragraph (2), consider— (a) every instrument (whether or not a statutory instrument), or draft of an instrument, which is laid before each House of Parliament and upon which proceedings may be, or might have been, taken in either House of Parliament under an Act of Parliament; (b) every proposal which is in the form of a draft of such an instrument and is laid before each House of Parliament under an Act of Parliament, with a view to determining whether or not the special attention of the House should be drawn to it on any of the grounds specified in paragraph (3). (2) The exceptions are— (a) Orders in Council, and draft Orders in Council, under paragraph 1 of the Schedule to the Northern Ireland Act 2000; (b) remedial orders, and draft remedial orders, under section 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998; (c) draft orders (including draft subordinate provisions orders) under section 1 of the Regulatory Reform Act 2001, subordinate provisions orders under that Act and proposals in the form of a draft order under that Act; (d) Measures under the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919 and instruments made, and drafts of instruments to be made, under them. (3) The grounds on which an instrument, draft or proposal may be drawn to the special attention of the House are— (a) that it is politically or legally important or gives rise to issues of public policy likely to be of interest to the House; (b) that it may be inappropriate in view of changed circumstances since the enactment of the parent Act; (c) that it may inappropriately implement European Union legislation; (d) that it may imperfectly achieve its policy objectives. (4) The Committee shall also consider such other general matters relating to the effective scrutiny of the merits of statutory instruments and arising from the performance of its functions under paragraphs (1) to (3) as the Committee considers appropriate, except matters within the orders of reference of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. Current Membership The Members of the Committee are: Baroness Adams of Craigielea Viscount Eccles Baroness Maddock Lord Armstrong of Ilminster Lord Filkin (Chairman) Baroness Thomas of Winchester Viscount Colville of Culross Lord James of Blackheath Lord Tunnicliffe Baroness Deech Lord Jopling Registered Interests Members’ registered interests may be examined in the online Register of Lords’ Interests at www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/ldreg.htm. The Register may also be inspected in the House of Lords Record Office and is available for purchase from the Stationery Office. Publications The Committee’s Reports are published by the Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee are on the internet at: www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/merits.cfm Contacts If you have any queries about the Committee and its work, please contact the Clerk of the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee, Delegated Legislation Office, House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW; telephone 020-7219 8821; facsimile 020-7219 2571; email [email protected]. The Committee’s website, www.parliament.uk, has guidance for the public on how to contact the Committee if you have a concern or opinion about any new item of secondary legislation. Thirteenth Report DRAFT GAMBLING (GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF CASINO PREMISES LICENCES) ORDER 2007 Summary: This draft Order was laid on 1 March and permits the 17 local authorities set out in the Order to issue one premises licence each in the specific casino category allocated to them (regional, large or small). We took evidence to clarify how and why the Government had set the selection criteria for the Panel and how the Panel measured the bids against those criteria. The evidence demonstrated a difference in interpretation of “social impact”, with the Panel’s interpretation giving greater prominence to economic factors and less to the minimisation of harm from gambling, a licensing objective set by section 1 of the Gambling Act 2005. Each licence can only be issued after the authority has held an open competition for proposals and once the winner has obtained planning permission and the other necessary licences. The Government deliberately set the “best possible test of social impact” as the primary objective in the Panel’s terms of reference. We heard in evidence that the Panel gave great weight to the traceability of social impact and this significantly affected its recommendations, ruling out some locations where it felt it might be more difficult to trace the impact. The regional casino may not however be located in the same location within the licensing authority as proposed in the bid to the Panel (and thus where the Panel considered the best possible test of social impact could be assessed) because the next stage of the process requires an open competition amongst potential operators and each successful authority may award the licence to any site within its area. The draft Order will be debated in the Lords on 28 March. This Order is drawn to the special attention of the House on the ground that it gives rise to issues of public policy likely to be of interest to the House and may imperfectly achieve its policy objectives. 1. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) have laid this Order under sections 175 and 355 of the Gambling Act 2005 (“the Act”) together with an Explanatory Memorandum (EM) and Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA). Purpose of the Order 2. The draft Order permits the 17 selected licensing authorities to issue one premises licence each in the specific casino category allocated to them (regional, large or small). Each licence can only be issued after the authority has held an open competition for proposals (in compliance with Part 8 of and Schedule 9 to the Act) and once the winner has obtained planning permission and the other necessary licences. The draft Order will be debated in the Lords on 28 March. 2 MERITS OF STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS COMMITTEE Background 3. Such was the concern in both Houses over the potential impact of regional casinos that a Joint Committee was convened specifically to consider “the definition, location and economic and other implications of the largest casinos”. Its report, published on 22 July 2004, made a number of recommendations, including that to minimise any increase in problem gambling due to proximity to a casino, the largest casinos should be located away from residential areas and town centres1. As originally presented, the Gambling Bill proposed to leave the number of casino licences to market forces but this was unacceptable to the House of Commons: the bill was amended in Standing Committee to permit eight of each type of casino, so that the impact of an expansion in gambling could be tested. It was at this stage (16 December 2004) that the Government issued their Statement of National Policy (printed at Appendix 1 to this Report). 4. When the Bill was brought to the Lords in January 2005, this House shared the concern that the impact of the change should be properly piloted before many licences were issued. In the run up to the dissolution of Parliament, the bill was amended to reduce the first batch of licences to one regional casino, eight large and eight small and, with that limitation, the Act gained Royal Assent on 7 April 2005. The geographical distribution of the available licences is to be determined by the Secretary of State by Order subject to the affirmative procedure, and that Order is the subject of this Report. 5. The Government appointed the Casino Advisory Panel on 1 October 2005 to advise them on which of the bidding local authorities should be given permission to issue which sort of licence (the Panel’s terms of reference are printed at Appendix 2 to this Report). The Panel issued a call for bids on 31 January 2006. They published a provisional shortlist on 24 May 2006 and there was then some confusion over the process and appeals: supplementary submissions were allowed until 14 August. The shortlisted applicants for a regional casino licence were each then invited to an Examination in Public to discuss their bid and to allow other interested parties to be represented. The Final Report from the Casino Advisory Panel (“the Panel’s Report”), which listed the recommended local authorities for each type of licence, was published on 30 January 20072. Having consulted the Scottish Ministers and the National Assembly for Wales, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport laid the draft Order on 1 March 2007, endorsing the locations recommended by the Casino Advisory Panel without modification (Q77). Our approach 6. The draft instrument is short, simply listing the chosen licensing authorities, but the recommendations have been the subject of considerable controversy. To inform our scrutiny and to help the House make a better informed decision when it is asked to approve the draft Order on 28 March, we decided to take oral evidence from Professor Stephen Crow CB, Chairman of the Casino Advisory Panel and Rt Hon. Richard Caborn MP, Minister of State at DCMS (Appendix 5). We wanted to clarify how and why the 1 Session 2003-04, HL Paper 146, paragraphs 68-9 and 82-85.