21 April 2022 — Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Commissioners

Location: Hybrid meeting, Board Room, Victoria House, Birmingham and via Microsoft Teams.

Commissioners:

• Marcus Boyle (Chair)
• Terry Babbs
• John Baillie (virtual)
• Brian Bannister
• Carol Brady
• Stephen Cohen
• Trevor Pearce
• Catharine Seddon

Executive team:

• Andrew Rhodes (CEO)
• Helen Gibson (FD)
• Charlotte Leonard (interim COO)
• Tim Miller
• Nadine Pemberton Jn Baptiste (Legal, from 11:25)
• John Tanner (from 11:25)

Other participants:

• (REDACTED) (Board Secretary)
• (REDACTED) (Item 3 only)
• (REDACTED) (items 5 and 7 only)
• (REDACTED) (item 3 only)
• (REDACTED) (notes)
• (REDACTED) (item 7 only, virtual)
• (REDACTED) (item 4 only, virtual) External attendee: (REDACTED) Foresight Factory (item 3 only)

Apologies: Sarah Gardner

1. Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

The Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting and noted apologies from Sarah Gardner.

There were new declarations of interest as follows:

• Catharine Seddon has become a Board member of CafCass from April 2022 to April 2026
• Jo Hill was already a trustee at the Money and Mental Health Institute, and has become Vice Chair, as of 1 April 2022.

2. Minutes, actions and forward look

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 February and 24 March 2022 were approved as a true and accurate record of the meetings, subject to a change of wording to item 3 under '8. What do we know about problem gambling' in the 24 March minutes.

(REDACTED)

The actions and forward look were noted with no comments.

3. Foresight Factory and Consumer Insight

The Chair welcomed the Client Partner of Foresight Factory (FF) to the meeting.

(REDACTED)

The Client Partner introduced the work of FF with the Gambling Commission, and then presented the slides.

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4. National Strategy to prevent Gambling Harms (the Strategy) annual report (end of Year 3)

The Chair welcomed the Advisory Board for Safer Gambling (ABSG) Chair to the meeting.

The Executive Director of Research and Policy introduced the item and reminded the Board that the Strategy is now in a transition phase. The initial life of the Strategy had finished but we are rolling it over to see where the Gambling Act Review will shift the current landscape. Today is more about giving a summary of progress to date and to flag any issues or risks as we transition to the next phase.

The ABSG Chair thanked the Board, Executive Team and everyone at the Commission who have been involved in the design and oversight of the Strategy, with particular credit going to the Executive Director of Research and Policy, and the Director of NSRGH who have led their teams exceptionally well. It is important to acknowledge how much commitment has been given to this work.

The ABSG Chair went out to outline key achievements and gaps in challenges.

ABSG had been responsible for setting the Strategy up to April 2019, when it was transferred to the Commission. Since that transition, there has been huge progress, in part due to the leadership shown by the Commission.

Key achievements have been in infrastructure, data and funding.

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5. Responses on proposed changes to Licensing, Compliance and Enforcement policy (including proposed policy position on dual regulation)

The Director of Compliance gave a brief update on the proposed changes to the Licensing, Compliance and Enforcement policy (the policy), post consultation.

We consulted in November last year on the policy position of dual regulated products and to update the policy in general.

The consultation received 66 responses.

The proposal also embeds the concept of special measures, which is a formal part of our regulatory toolkit.

The Board discussed the papers, key points as follows.

The rewording at paragraph 3.10 (of the policy) is welcomed, around suitability and relevance of persons considered when granting operating licence applications.
Question 8 (of the consultation) asked 'to what extent do you agree with our proposal to add a statement setting out our expectations that licences are used within a reasonable period of time of granting', and the Board discussed how this might apply to consultants. It would be interesting to carry out a piece of work on tracking Personal Management Licence (PML) holders.

The Board would welcome an update once the recommendations from the BetIndex review have been completed.

The Board agreed the response to the consultations on amendments to the Licensing, Compliance and Enforcement policy document, and the consequent changes to the policy.

Action: BetIndex review recommendations update report to be added to Board forward look.

6. Gambling Act Review (GAR) verbal update

The Executive Director Research and Policy gave an update on the GAR.

(REDACTED)

7. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) report

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) introduced his report.

(REDACTED)

8. Chair’s report

The Chair updated the Board.

(REDACTED)

9. Finance report

The Board noted the report.

(REDACTED)

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10. Fourth National Lottery Licence Competition (4NLC) update briefing – legally privileged (recorded separately by the Director of Legal)

11. Corporate Governance Framework: update to Fourth National Lottery Competition Committee (4NLCC) terms of reference (ToR)

The Board Secretary introduced the item.

(REDACTED)

The Board approved the revised 4NLCC ToR.

(REDACTED)

12. Any other business

Review of the meeting: the Board commented they were grateful that so much time had been allocated for the Fourth National Lottery Licence (4NL) discussion. The Chair commented that the presentation from Foresight Factory had generated some interesting discussion.

13. Private session

Senior Independent Director (SID) and Commissioners only: not minuted.

14. Below the line items: for discussion by exception only

Adult gaming survey methodology improvement.

National Strategy: recap for information.