Clause 71 - General conditions imposed by Commission
Gambling Bill
4:30 pm
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.