Clause 146 - Delegation to licensing committee
Gambling Bill
3:15 pm
Mr Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
These are by way of probing amendments to tease out the Government's thinking. Amendment No. 139 would simply delete the reference to the Licensing Act 2003 so that the provision would refer to
''the licensing committee of the authority as established by that authority'',
which is the one that forms the licensing committee.
In amendment No. 140 I am seeking an explanation from the Minister as to why the delegation is organised as proposed in the Bill rather than in some other way. Licensing committees have enough on their plates with the 2003 Act and are already complaining, as the Minister well knows, about the lack of resources for those various jobs. The provision will be an extra burden on them for which they may not receive adequate resources.