Licence applicants and National Lottery vetting
When we receive an application for a licence for a business, for a personal licence via application online, or carry out vetting processes for 'vetted roles' in relation to the National Lottery, we create or update the information we hold about that person on our systems. We use that data to decide whether to approve the application and issue the licence.
The provision of data for the purposes of licence applications and vetting processes is required by law. Failure to provide the information requested constitutes an offence under the Gambling Act and will lead to the application being refused. The provision of data for the purpose of vetting procedures is required by law under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. If we find that any individual does not meet the necessary standards required by law, they may not be employed in a vetted role. It is also vital, of course, that care is taken to ensure that the information supplied is accurate (including in the period between the submission of the application and the date of the decision). If this is not done, there is a possibility that the licence subsequently issued may be reviewed and potentially revoked.
We are also required to conduct ‘suitability assessments’ as part of the licensing process. For this purpose, we will obtain personal data relating to applicants from third parties such as Disclosure and Barring Service/Disclosure Scotland, CreditSafe and Experian. Obtaining data from third parties is explained further below.
The licensing objectives under the Gambling Act are:
- preventing gambling from being a source of crime and disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime
- ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way
- protecting children and other vulnerable people from being harmed or exploited by gambling.
Therefore, our collection of personal data for licensing purposes may also be used to:
- comply with our statutory function and legal obligations
- inform our regulatory work in accordance with these objectives – including investigations and enforcement
- assist other regulators or law enforcement agencies
- check our level of service and to help us improve things where we can
- conduct research/ collate statistics for publication and/or for the purposes of formulation of policy. Although, in this case, the persons’ data will not identify individuals (in other words, it will be anonymised).
Fourth National Lottery Licence
Under the National Lottery Act 1993, the Gambling Commission must ensure that the Licensee is fit and proper to operate the National Lottery.
As part of competition for the Fourth National Lottery Licence and to ensure the Gambling Commission complies with this legal obligation, the Commission will carry out fit and proper checks during the competition on all applicants and also key individuals or entities who appear to the Commission to be likely to manage the business or any part of the business of running the National Lottery and who would benefit from the running of the National Lottery, should the applicant be successful.
Fit and proper checks examine the identity, integrity, criminality and financial integrity of those operating or benefiting from the National Lottery (or applying to do so). When undertaking fit and proper checks we will collect and process the following personal data of the applicant and the key individuals who fulfil the description set out above:
Individual vetting applications:
― After the application is determined, the Commission will only retain the application form and the Fit & Proper letter issued to the Applicant, all other documents are deleted.
Corporate vetting applications:
― After the application is determined, the Commission will retain Declaration, Memorandum & Articles of Association, Form of Authority & Waiver; Licence agreements and our Fit & Proper letter (with all else being deleted upon finalising the application):
We may contact the following agencies to report on spent and unspent convictions, cautions, penalties, fines and intelligence:
― Disclosure Scotland & Disclosure & Barring Services ― FCA ― Insolvency Agency ― HMRC ― Serious Fraud Office ― Security Services
Our purpose for collecting and processing this personal data is to ensure the applicant and key individuals or entities who will benefit from the running of the National Lottery (should the applicant be successful) are fit and proper.
Our lawful basis for processing personal data for this purpose is to comply with our legal obligation under the National Lottery Act 1993. To the extent that fit and proper checks return details of previous criminal convictions or we otherwise process criminal offence data as part of the fit and proper checks, our condition for processing criminal offence data, under schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 2018, will be to perform our statutory and government purposes.
For further information, applicants should refer to the other sections of this privacy statement and the guidance note “Information for applicants: Fit and Proper Checks during the Competition for the Fourth National Lottery Licence”.
The successful applicant, will be subject to ongoing obligations in respect of fit and proper checks in accordance with the Fourth National Lottery Licence.
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People who already hold an operating and or personal licence
Last updated: 20 December 2021
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