Clause 138 - Stay pending appeal
Gambling Bill
2:45 pm
Mr Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
The amendment proposes to leave out subsection (2) of clause 138. The clause provides that the commission may direct that a stay pending appeal will not apply. However, there are no grounds for such a direction in the Bill. Damage could, obviously, result from a decision from which an appeal was lodged and, therefore, either specific grounds for refusal to apply the stay pending appeal should be set forth in the Bill or that power should be deleted.
Amendments Nos. 335 and 339, the latter of which is consequential in clause 194, insert the words ''in exceptional circumstances''. Any decision by the commission under clause 138 to override the right to a stay pending appeal would have serious and immediate consequences for the operator in question. If the power is not to be the subject of possible abuse, such a decision should be taken only in exceptional circumstances. The application of a stay is part of the normal remit process and should be reflected here. No action should be taken by the commission until an appeal has been heard, unless there are exceptional circumstances to justify overriding that principle.
There may well be circumstances that do justify overruling the stay, and we do not argue against that provision. We merely argue that the commission's right to exercise that power must be balanced by the need to demonstrate the compelling reasons for doing so.