Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

To agree the minutes of the Committee meeting held on 21 September 2021  and the Sub-Committee hearing held on 17 September 2021

The minutes of the Committee meeting held on 21 September 2021 and the Sub-Committee (Hearing) held on 17 September 2021 were agreed and signed as true records.

Report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services which updated Members on the outcome of the 6 week consultation undertaken on the review of the Council’s Statement of Gambling Policy for the Gambling Act 2005.

The Gambling Act 2005 requires each licensing authority to prepare and publish a Statement of Gambling Policy. The policy statement sets out how the licensing authority intends to approach its licensing responsibilities and in particular how it intends to promote the three licensing objectives.

The current Gambling Policy came into effect on 3^rd January 2019 to cover a period up to 31 January 2022. The policy has to be renewed every three years and be subject to a full consultation process. The Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities gave approval to carry out the consultation on 22 July 2021. 

The report presented the results of the consultation, the comments received, and the amendments made to the Council’s draft Gambling Policy. The responses were summarised in Appendix B of the report.

There were no major changes recommended to the Policy except for some minor wording amendments. The general principles of the Gambling Policy remain the same and the document was still centred around the Gambling Act’s three licensing objectives, namely:

·  Preventing gambling from being a source of crime and disorder, being associated with crime and disorder or being used to support crime;

·  Ensure gambling is conducted in a fair and open way; and

·  Protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

Following the public consultation, the revised draft Statement of Gambling Policy, as attached at Appendix A of the report, was now ready to be recommended for adoption to take effect from 31 January 2022.

RESOLVED that the Licensing and Regulatory Committee having considered the results of the consultation, and the proposed changes on the revised Statement of Gambling Policy for the period 2022-2025, had no comments to forward to the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities for consideration.

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of business.