Clause 125 - Fees
Gambling Bill
11:15 am
Mr Richard Caborn (Minister of State (Sport and Tourism), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Sheffield Central, Labour)
I agree that fees for personal licences should be consistent throughout Great Britain. However, the amendment is not necessary, because the clause makes it clear that the fee will be set by the Secretary of State and no one else. Let me reassure the hon. Gentleman on the substance. We have no intention of involving local authorities in the process of setting fees for personal licences. Nor do we intend to set different fees for licences awarded to persons living or working in different areas. A personal licence will be a licence to work anywhere in Great Britain, and there will be a standard national fee for each type of licence.
If the hon. Gentleman is worried about subsection (3)(b), let me reassure him that it is not in the Bill to allow us to set different fees for different areas. This is purely belt-and-braces drafting to allow for a situation in which the holders of the same category of licence do different tasks that involve more regulatory costs. With those reassurances, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw the amendment.