Professional Fees

Request

I have been going through your annual reports as part of a research project for the investigative journalism organisation Point Source.

I would like a clarification regarding your annual report for 2019/20.

For this time period there was a large increase in expenditures down to an expenditure of £10,834,000 which is labelled "Professional Fees".

This increased from £2,983,000the previous year.

In the document you say that these professional fees included consultancy costs totalling £1.02m, due to increased costs relating to National Lottery Competition.

However, this fails to fully account for the increased figure by a large margin.

It would be very helpful if you could provide a clarification on what the extra £6.8m was spent on.

Response

Thank you for your request which has been processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

In your email you have requested clarification regarding the large increase in expenditure within the Gambling Commission’s annual report for 2019/20. Specifically, for this time period there was a large increase in expenditures down to an expenditure of £10,834,000 labelled "Professional Fees” including consultancy costs totalling £1.02m, due to increased costs relating to National Lottery Competition. You have requested clarification on what the extra £6.8m was spent on.

The Gambling Commission can confirm that this period was the early investment phase of the National Lottery competition tender.

Although the Gambling Commission used consultants to help with this process, several external organisations also supported this process which was not considered to be consultancy advice, but rather professional support.

Review of the decision

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Please note, internal review requests should be made within 40 working days of the initial response. Requests made outside this timeframe will not be processed.

If you are not content with the outcome of our review, you may then apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have already exhausted the review procedure provided by the Gambling Commission. 

It should be noted that if you wish to raise a complaint with the ICO about the Commission’s handling of your request for information, then you are required to do so within six weeks of receiving your final response or last substantive contact with us.

The ICO can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office (opens in new tab), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Information Management Team
Gambling Commission