Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which review model was used by the Hampton review team in its assessment of the Gambling Commission; and on how many occasions the Review Team met the Gambling Commission for the purposes of the assessment.

Ian Pearson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Economic and Business), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Dudley South, Labour)

Under the Hampton implementation review framework, regulators are reviewed under one of two models, depending on their size, scope and impact, to ensure that reviews are proportionate to the organisation in question.

The Gambling Commission was assessed under the 'Model 1' framework whereby a review team of experienced individuals from the Better Regulation Executive, National Audit Office, the Security Industry Authority and the EEF assessed the work of the Commission over a one-week period. The review team conducted a combination of interviews with senior staff, with representatives of the gambling sector, and with individual regulated businesses, as well as shadowing the work of Commission inspectors.

The review framework and both the Model 1 and Model 2 methodologies are set out on the BERR website at

http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/bre/inspection-enforcement/implementing-principles/reviewing-regulators/page44054.html.

The review team met with a wide range of Commission staff, including both Commission members and Executive staff ranging from the Chief Executive to their compliance and advisory staff over the course of 6 October to 10 October.