The amounts remitted to HM Treasury from fines
Request
Please provide the amounts remitted to HM Treasury from Gambling Commission fines issued in its capacity as an Anti-Money Laundering Supervisor for the financial years:
a) 2017/2018
b) 2018/2019
c) 2019/2020
d) 2020/2021
e) 2021/2022
f) 2022/2023
g) 2023/2024
Response
Thank you for your request which has been processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
In your email you have requested the amounts remitted to HM Treasury from Gambling Commission fines issued in its capacity as an Anti-Money Laundering Supervisor for the financial years:
a) 2017/2018
b) 2018/2019
c) 2019/2020
d) 2020/2021
e) 2021/2022
f) 2022/2023
g) 2023/2024
The Commission's powers to issue fines is derived from the Gambling Act 2005. Section 121 of the Gambling Act 2005 provides that the Gambling Commission may require the holder of an operating licence to pay a penalty if the Commission determines that a condition of the licence has been breached. The Commission may impose a financial penalty following a review under section 116(1) or (2) of the Act. The Commission also has the power to impose a financial penalty without carrying out a licence review. Once a financial penalty has been imposed the Commission pays monies received into a Consolidated Fund, once it has deducted its costs and a reasonable share of its expenditure, as set out at section 121(5)(c).
Where the Commission has issued a penalty in respect of a regulatory failing or breach, in the majority of cases the penalty is paid directly to a benefactor (where a benefactor has been identified) or to a nominated responsible gambling charity. The Commission only recovers any direct costs as a result of undertaking the investigation or the imposition and enforcement of the penalty. The amounts retained by the Commission are shown within the accounts as other income.
In the event that a fine is issued for a regulatory breach, the Commission will collect the fine and pay it to the Consolidated Fund having deducted the costs of its investigation under the principle outlined in the previous paragraph.
A complete breakdown of regulatory action conducted by the Gambling Commission over the last three years can be viewed on our website:
Amounts due to be passed over to the Consolidated Fund at the year end are shown in the Gambling Commission Annual Report and Accounts:
The most recent financial years information (2023/24) will be published in due course.
This published information relating to the regulatory action taken by the Commission, does not breakdown the fine issued into the specific amount that is attributable to each failing. As such, each fine could contain elements of AML issues, however, in order to distinguish the amount attributed to this specific breach type we would be required to review each case.
Whilst I can confirm that the Gambling Commission does hold information falling within the scope of your request, this information is not stored in an extractable format. We would be required to review large volumes of information, stored across several areas of the Commission to fulfil your request.
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for public authorities, such as the Commission, is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
The information that you have requested is not held in one central location. We estimate, in order to identify, locate and retrieve the information relating to the above request, it would take in excess of 18 hours to determine appropriate material and locate, retrieve and extract any relevant information in reference to your request.
When a public authority applies the Section 12 exemption to a request, the FOIA guidance specifically states that a public authority should avoid providing any information found as a result of a search as it denies the requestor the right to express a preference as to which parts of the request they may wish to receive within the appropriate time limit. Guidance on the application of section 12 can be viewed here:
If you are able to refine your request, we may be able to narrow the number of records that we need to search. Until we are able to process the search of the information you have requested, we are unable to ascertain if other exemptions will apply to any material identified which would also prevent disclosure.
Please note, any refined request would be processed as a new request and the 20 working day statutory time limit would apply.
Review of the decision
If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your Freedom of Information request you are entitled to an internal review of our decision. You should write to FOI Team, Gambling Commission, 4th floor, Victoria Square House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B2 4BP or by reply to this email.
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 a new tab), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.
Information Management Team
Gambling Commission