Schedule 1 - New Schedule 1A to the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963
Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Bill
4:00 pm
Mr Richard Page (South West Hertfordshire, Conservative)
Mine will be a very short intervention. I wish to support my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire with a logical argument. The Tote is not a small business. It is not a corner shop but a relatively large organisation. The idea that one could cobble together accurate figures, if required, in seven days is an impossible imposition. The clause does not even say seven working days, so if the request was received on a Friday and there was a bank holiday, there would be only three days in which to produce the figures.
It is a simple matter of logic. Anyone with any business experience would require more than seven days to comply with the regulations to make sure that the figures are presented correctly. I am sure that the Minister will see the eminent logic of the amendments and be only too happy to accept them.