Mr Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)

I beg to move amendment No. 229A, in clause 71, page 30, line 22, at end insert

''provided that such conditions may not unfairly or unreasonably grant another class a competitive advantage''.

Mr Peter Pike (Burnley, Labour)

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments:

No. 233A, in clause 74, page 31, line 32, at end insert

''provided that such a condition may not unfairly or unreasonably discriminate between different types of gambling activities''.

No. 234A, in clause 75, page 32, line 32, at end add—

''(10) No condition referred to in this section may have the effect of reasonably or unfairly granting an unfair advantage to the operators or consumers of a particular gambling activity or to an operator of one gambling activity compared with another operator of the same activity.

(11) The power to attach such conditions shall be the subject of a statement made by the Secretary of State after due consultation with those referred to in section 22(5) (b) to (f).''.

No. 241, in clause 104, page 48, line 7, after 'activity', insert 'in a non-discriminatory manner'.

Mr Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)

I give the Minister advance notice that if he gives the same assurance that he gave in response to the amendments to clause 65, I would be persuaded to withdraw my amendment.

The purpose of the amendments is to ensure that it should be expressly required that the commission acts in a way that does not discriminate unfairly between different classes of gambling activity. It must be clear that any policy decision in respect of conditions does

not unfairly distort the gambling market and should be subject to consultation and to a statement made by the Secretary of State.

The power to attach conditions is extremely broad and, as currently drafted, it is unclear under what circumstances individual conditions can be attached or on what grounds such conditions might be challenged. It is therefore essential that such a fundamental power is clearly described in a statement by the Secretary of State after consultation with key stakeholders.

I shall give the Minister one example of the imbalance that currently applies. Fixed-odds betting terminals are allowed in betting shops, but not in the 134 casinos in this country. The amendments seek to ensure that similar imbalances will not occur in the future.

Mr Richard Caborn (Minister of State (Sport and Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Sheffield Central, Labour)

The amendments seek to ensure that the commission and the Secretary of State act reasonably in imposing conditions on operating licences and will avoid anti-competitive effects. Both parties will clearly wish to do that. It would be perverse for them to act otherwise, and if they did so, they would be open to legal challenge in the usual way.

It is not the function of conditions imposed by the commission or the Secretary of State to give rise to anti-competitive effects, but different circumstances and different types of gambling may demand different treatment. That may be necessary, not to affect competition, but to protect the public. As we share the objective of protecting the public, we should not accept the amendments.

Although operating licences are generally to be of an indefinite duration, clause 104 allows the commission to decide that certain types of operating licences may have a limited duration. Amendment No. 241 would allow the commission to behave in a non-discriminatory and reasonable manner, and that is clearly right. The commission will be required to publish the reasons for any limit on duration as part of its policy for licensing and regulation under clause 22. In addition, the commission will be constrained by normal rules of public law. Any arbitrary use of its powers may result in a decision being challenged by judicial review. That should provide the safeguard that the hon. Gentleman seeks.

Mr Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)

The Minister has been inordinately helpful, and in the light of his response, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Clause 71 ordered to stand part of the Bill.