Damian Collins: The Government is conducting a wide-ranging and evidence-led Review of the Gambling Act 2005. This includes consideration of the legislative landscape for casinos, in particular the distinction between the new style casinos allowed by the 2005 Act and the majority of casinos whose licences align with provisions originating in the Gambling Act 1968. We will publish a White Paper setting out...
Damian Collins: The Government takes the issue of disinformation very seriously. The Counter Disinformation Unit team, based in DCMS, works to understand the scope, scale and reach of disinformation and works with a range of partners, including social media platforms, to tackle it. The primary purpose of the team is not to spot every instance of disinformation across all social media platforms, but rather to...
Damian Collins: DCMS officials have regular discussions with the Gambling Commission on a range of issues relating to gambling regulation and the evidence on gambling. The Commission has given the Department no formal advice or notification relating to the cost estimates in Public Health England’s evidence review on gambling related harm. Protecting people from gambling harms remains a priority for the...
Damian Collins: The UK has strong safeguards and enforcement regimes to ensure that data is collected and handled responsibly and securely. Companies registered in the UK are subject to our legal framework and regulatory jurisdiction. Wherever they are in the world, organisations that process the personal data of individuals in the UK for the purposes of providing goods and services or monitoring behaviour...
Damian Collins: The Government takes the issue of disinformation very seriously. The Counter Disinformation Unit team, based in DCMS, works to understand the scope, scale and reach of disinformation and works with a range of partners, including social media platforms, to tackle it. The primary purpose of the team is not to spot every instance of disinformation across all social media platforms, but rather to...
Damian Collins: In March 2021, the Gambling Commission launched an investigation into BetIndex, the operator of Football Index. This has now concluded and resulted in the revocation of BetIndex’s licence to operate. Following information received from the administrators and the Gambling Commission, the Insolvency Service has confirmed that the conduct of Betindex Limited’s directors is currently being...
Damian Collins: The Government takes the issue of disinformation seriously. The DCMS Counter Disinformation Unit leads the domestic operational and policy response for countering disinformation across HMG, working closely with major social media platforms to encourage them to swiftly remove disinformation and coordinated inauthentic or manipulated behaviour, as per their Terms of Service. We also engage with...
Damian Collins: The annual sales limit for society lotteries was increased from £10 million to £50 million in July 2020. We published a review of the impact of these and other changes to society lottery sales and prize limits in March 2022 (link). Early indicators are positive, for example the increase in the annual sales limit has allowed some multiple licensed operators who previously had annual sales in...
Damian Collins: Certain states routinely use disinformation as a foreign policy tool. The UK has a strong record of responding robustly to hostile state activity, in collaboration with our international partners, and we continue to take action in response to this form of malign influence. That is why the DCMS-led Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU) is working to identify and counter Russian disinformation...
Damian Collins: The strongest protections in the Online Safety Bill are for children. All services in scope will need to do far more to protect children from illegal content and activity, including illegal content about age-restricted products. Services will have to remove and limit the spread of illegal content and take steps to prevent similar material from appearing. Services likely to be accessed by...
Damian Collins: The Future of Compute review was launched on 13 June 2022. It will produce recommendations on the UK’s compute capability over the next decade, and report to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The terms of reference can be found on gov.uk, and outline the objectives, outputs and themes that will be covered by the review. Zoubin...
Damian Collins: The Gambling Act Review is wide-ranging and aims to ensure that the regulation of gambling is fit for the digital age. We will publish a White Paper setting out our conclusions and next steps in due course.
Damian Collins: The process of awarding the licence to run the National Lottery is governed by the National Lottery etc. Act (1993). Under the Act, the Gambling Commission has a duty to ensure that any person who either runs or benefits from the running of the National Lottery is fit and proper and that the Licensee’s operation meets high standards of propriety. The award of the licence is distinct...
Damian Collins: The UK Government continues to monitor the mobile telecommunications market and promote a competitive marketplace that serves the interests of consumers. Some operators, such as Virgin Media O2, continue to offer surcharge free roaming to consumers, whilst others offer low cost packages. We continue to advise that consumers check with their operators before travelling abroad to the EU.
Damian Collins: Where a public service broadcaster qualifies as a ‘Recognised News Publisher’ as per clause 50 of the Bill, all their content will be exempt from online safety regulation, including any non-news content that they publish. This includes all content from the British Broadcasting Corporation and Sianel Pedwar Cymru among others.
Damian Collins: As part of the Gambling Act Review, ministers and officials have had meetings with a range of stakeholders to support ongoing work and policy development, including with representatives of the betting and gambling industry. Records of ministerial meetings are published quarterly and are available on GOV.UK.
Damian Collins: National Lottery ticket sales return 12% to the Exchequer as lottery duty. The Gambling Commission provides DCMS and the Lottery Distributing Bodies with good cause forecasts on a six-monthly basis to assist them with their grant planning. The forecast is presented as a range, with low, high and central scenarios. The modelling approach is regularly refined to ensure the forecasts...
Damian Collins: We recognise that being digitally excluded makes it more difficult for people to make use of essential services. DCMS is responsible for coordinating HMG digital inclusion policy, and aims to ensure that people across the country from all backgrounds have a base level of digital skills, as well as internet access - two of the most fundamental aspects of digital exclusion. DfE’s Digital...
Damian Collins: The Government currently has no plans to introduce a requirement for gambling operators to pay a fee or levy to football or other sporting bodies. The Government invests millions into grassroots sport facilities via the Football Foundation alongside the Football Association and the Premier League. In addition to the £18m of government support this provides annually, in 2021 the government...
Damian Collins: The Online Safety Bill will ensure content from all public service broadcasters is protected on social media platforms. The Bill exempts recognised news publishers’ content from tech platforms’ new online safety duties. This means tech companies will be under no legal obligation to apply their new safety duties to that content. The criteria under which an organisation qualifies as a...