Appointment of Board members to the new independent Strategy Board on minimising risks from gambling

Press release

Date: 19 February 2009

A new independent Strategy Board will advise the Gambling Commission and, in turn, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on research, education and treatment programmes needed to support a national responsible gambling strategy and associated funding requirements.

Following the announcement of Baroness Neuberger as the Chair of the Strategy Board, a further nine Board members have now been appointed, with one post still vacant. Their expertise covers a range of interests including knowledge of the gambling industry, socially responsible gambling services, preventative education, public health, addiction and counselling services, epidemiological research and social research programme management.

The Board members are Neil Goulden, Paul Bellringer, Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Dr Sian Griffiths, David Guy, Richard Ives, Alan Jamieson, David Miers and Dr Gerda Reith. Short biographies are provided below.

In addition Professor Peter Collins, from the Centre for the Study of Gambling, University of Salford, has been invited by Baroness Neuberger to provide advice, briefing and think pieces for the Board in the first year in relation to:

the Board’s induction and start up
scoping the Board’s work programme
specific areas which the Board wishes to explore.

Baroness Neuberger commented “I am very pleased to be able to bring together so many talented and experienced individuals. Their collective expertise is extraordinary and, while our remit is challenging, I am confident that, together, we will deliver a robust British strategic framework for research, education and treatment.”

Board Members
Neil Goulden Gala Coral	Neil Goulden is the Chairman of The Gala Coral Group having started his career as a betting office manager in 1975. He is also Chairman of the South Central (Oxfordshire - Buckinghamshire - Hampshire - Berkshire) Ambulance Service, a Non Executive Director of Marstons Plc, Chairman of Business in Sport and Leisure and a Member of the Low Pay Commission.
Paul Bellringer Consultant	Paul Bellringer has 27 years’ experience of working with responsible gambling issues and has been an adviser to governments, regulators and the gambling industry and a principal architect of the social responsibility codes of practice on gambling. He was the founder and first CEO of GamCare.
Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones Consultant Psychiatrist	Henrietta Bowden-Jones is an elected member of the Addictions Faculty Executive Committee of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. She is also the spokesperson on Problem Gambling for the College. She is the founder and Lead Clinician of the National Problem Gambling Clinic, the first NHS clinic of its kind in the UK, and is employed by Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust as an Addictions Psychiatrist. She is Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College, London where she researched the effects of orbito-frontal cortex impairment on treatment retention in alcohol dependency. She is a Trustee of Sporting Chance Clinic, a charity for sports people addicted to drugs, alcohol and gambling.
Dr Sian Griffiths Professor of Public Health	Sian Griffiths has been Professor of Public Health and Director of the School of Public Health in Hong Kong since 2005. Qualified as a doctor, she has held a variety of service posts with academic links at international, national, regional and local level whilst based in the UK. She was Chair of the Association for Public Health and President of the UK Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians from 2001-4. She is a member of the UK 2008 RAE (Research Assessment Exercise) panel for epidemiology and public health and is also a member of the National Health Authority Board of Qatar. She remains honorary senior clinical lecturer in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care of Oxford University and is an Honorary Professor at Cardiff University.
David Guy Head of Knowledge Transfer	David Guy is Head of Knowledge Transfer at the Economic and Social Research Council. He has been a member of the Responsibility in Gambling Trust (RIGT) since it adopted that title and chairs the RIGT Research Panel which has representatives of all gambling research funders.
Richard Ives Managing Director, Educari	Richard Ives has extensive experience of prevention and education work with children and young people, especially in relation to illegal drugs and alcohol. He runs the company, educari, which has produced educational resources, for example, drug and substance abuse. Richard has carried out an evaluation of the Gamble Aware website.
Alan Jamieson Executive Consultant	Alan Jamieson is an adviser to the European Commission, World Health Organisation and national governments on the role therapy can play in healthcare and public education. He is a member of the British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists and until recently was their Deputy Chief Executive.
David Miers Professor of Law	David Miers is Professor of Law at Cardiff Law School. He has a long-standing research interest in and has published extensively about the regulation of commercial gambling. He is regularly consulted by government and the regulatory bodies and in 2003/04 was a Special Adviser to the Joint Committee on the Draft Gambling Bill.
Dr. Gerda Reith Senior Lecturer	Dr. Gerda Reith is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Gambling Research Group at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on the role of social, cultural and environmental factors in the development of different types of gambling behaviour, and on the implications of these for public health and policy.
Adviser
Professor Peter Collins Director, Salford Business School	Peter Collins is Professor of Public Policy Studies and Director of the Centre for the Study of Gambling at the University of Salford. He is also the founder and Director of the South African National Responsible Gambling Programme. He was an expert adviser to the Joint Scrutiny Committee for the 2005 Gambling Act and has consulted widely for governments in other jurisdictions. He is a trustee of GamCare.

Ends

Notes to editors

The Gambling Commission

1. The Gambling Commission (the Commission) keeps gambling fair and safe for all. It does so by keeping crime out of gambling, by ensuring that gambling is conducted fairly and openly, and by protecting children and vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling. The Commission also provides independent advice to government on gambling in Britain.

2. The Commission is responsible for licensing and regulating all gambling in Great Britain other than the National Lottery and spread betting, which are the responsibility of the National Lottery Commission and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) respectively.

The Strategy Board

3. To date the gambling industry has funded research, education and treatment for problem gambling on a voluntary basis and mainly through contributions to the Responsibility in Gambling Trust (RIGT). The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) asked the Commission to carry out a review of the effectiveness and level of the existing voluntary arrangements. The report, published in October 2008, concluded that the current arrangements are not working effectively and it made the case for improved voluntary arrangements to ensure that industry funding is firmly committed, sufficient and sustainable.

The Commission's strongly preferred option in the report is for a tripartite structure involving stakeholders working together to put in place voluntary arrangements for fundraising. This structure includes the strategy board, a fundraising body (for which the industry would be responsible) and a new distributor.

New arrangements need to be in place for April 2009 in order to avoid further uncertainty and delay.

In terms of fundraising, to date the Commission has not been able to obtain satisfactory funding commitments from the industry for the next three years and therefore DCMS has commenced a consultation on the introduction of a statutory levy.

Further details of the report are available here.

Further information

Further information is available from the Commission’s website.

John Travers on (0121) 230 6700 or email communications@gamblingcommission.gov.uk.