Cross-cutting enablers
Delivering on the commitments within our five areas of focus, as well as our core regulatory functions, is dependent on a number of cross-cutting activities that underpin all of our work.
People
We will develop and implement a people strategy to enable the delivery of the corporate strategy. The people priorities that will be addressed within the strategy period include:
- to build and recruit the right combination of skills and capabilities
- to enhance the employee offer, to attract and retain talent
- to build the capability of leaders and managers
- to embed inclusion into our everyday work.
Why? Our most important asset is our people. To deliver our strategy we will need to continuously improve, and we will do this by further increasing the engagement of every colleague and improving our organisational effectiveness. We aim to be a first-class regulator that attracts, recruits and retains diverse and talented people who are able to realise our ambition of making gambling fairer, safer and crime free.
As a result, we will maximise the potential of our existing people enabling us to retain key skills and expertise whilst also attracting new and diverse talent into the organisation. We will retain the necessary knowledge and skills to support those we regulate, including having an understanding of the gambling market and regulation, enabling us to implement proportionate and effective approaches to help make gambling fairer, safer and crime free.
We will measure our progress through a range of indicators including our annual and regular pulse surveys, retention and turnover rates, and diversity representation.
Effective stakeholder engagement
Our role as a regulator requires effective ongoing dialogue, and we are committed to a programme of stakeholder engagement to support our work and explain our decisions. By having open conversations, we can better understand how best to make gambling fairer, safer, to keep crime out of gambling and regulate a successful National Lottery.
We will build on our existing approach to ensure we are engaging with a wide range of stakeholders. The modern gambling industry is international in nature and uses a wide range of technology and techniques to advertise and deliver its products. That means we must work with other regulators and partners both domestically and internationally and use our standing to achieve shared regulatory outcomes on behalf of consumers and the wider public.
We want to understand and be responsive to the experience of consumers gambling with our licensees and affected others. We want to maintain and build effective relationships with industry – licensees, trade bodies and service providers. We want to hear from those in the third sector and to sustain open dialogue with parliamentarians raising issues on behalf of their constituents. And we want to learn, experience and engage with those whose expert insights can help shape and inform our approach, while also sharing information and insights with others in an open, authoritative and timely way.
Our work will include:
- flagship events such as CEO briefings and conferences
- meetings and visits with licensees, land-based venues, National Lottery distributors and National Lottery funded enterprises
- international collaboration through curating and leading regulatory forums and conferences along with building meaningful partnerships through meetings, agreements and joint activities
- parliamentary engagement with MP's, All-party Parliamentary Groups and Select Committees
- continuing to access and use the inputs of expert groups across digital, lived experience, safer gambling and industry.
Why? Effective engagement with the wide range of domestic and international stakeholders with an interest in gambling and its regulation is important to ensure that we are accountable, properly balanced and informed in our work. It is an important aspect of the Regulators’ Code and therefore guides our approach.
As a result, our approach will provide for early, regular and meaningful engagement with licensees, and other key stakeholders focused on improving outcomes for consumers and the wider public.
All parties including consumers and the wider public will continue to be invited to contribute to public consultations on major initiatives or proposed regulatory changes. Our consultations will be clear and open as to their purpose, allow a reasonable period for comment, and result in a published substantive response.
We will measure our progress of our work over the strategy period through feedback, discussion and insights.
Resources
To deliver our work efficiently we need to ensure we continue to have sound financial management policies in place and which we strictly adhere to. As a public body, we operate in accordance with Government and Treasury guidance on accounting and financial control procedures.
To deliver the commitments in this strategy we will set and agree budgets annually and target additional investment in our areas of strategic focus. Our budgets will benefit from the improvements made to our approach to forecasting income, revenue expenditure, and capital expenditure and the resultant management of reserves and cash.
Alongside our work to maximise our financial approach within the limitations of the current funding model we welcome the Government’s commitment to replace the current requirement for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to review and specify each Gambling Act 2005 licence fee in secondary legislation.
We will work with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to deliver their proposals to reform our funding framework.
Why? The Government’s White Paper outlined an intention to change the system for setting our fees, from the current requirement to consult and lay a statutory instrument, to an annual process where we will consult on our proposed fees for the following year and set out how this money will be spent.
The White Paper commitment was subsequently endorsed by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee report on gambling regulation published in December 2023.
As a result, a revised funding system will enable us to adjust our fees on an annual basis where necessary, increasing or reducing as appropriate, so our overall income remains at the right level to respond to challenges, cover the cost of regulation and allocate those costs fairly between licensees as is the case with other regulators.
Consumers and the wider public will benefit from an efficient regulator appropriately resourced to pursue the licensing objectives, with the additional flexibility to meet the challenges posed by an evolving gambling market, illegal gambling and boundary pushing products.
We will measure our progress by demonstrating that our current levels of reserves are reducing, and that we have a sustainable financial plan in place to manage our funding over the period of this strategy. This includes producing detailed annual financial plans in conjunction with our annual business plan for each year of the strategy.
Previous page5. Regulating a successful National Lottery
Last updated: 8 April 2024
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