28 February 2019 - Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Commissioners

Location: Victoria Square House, Birmingham (Boardroom)

Commissioners:

Bill Moyes (Chair)
John Baillie
Carol Brady
Stephen Cohen
Alison Hastings
Sarika Patel
Trevor Pearce
Simone Pennie (dial-in 10:00 – 11:00)
Jonathan Scott
Catharine Seddon (dial-in 14:45 onwards)

Executive directors:

Vic Beaumont
(REDACTED)
Nicky Heathcote
Paul Hope
Philip Lloyd
Neil McArthur
Tim Miller
David Pemberton
Richard Watson

In attendance:

(REDACTED) (item 3)
Teresa Camey (item 3)
(REDACTED) (item 3)
(REDACTED)
Reckon LLP (item 3)
(REDACTED) (item 3)
(REDACTED) – Gambling with Lives (item 4)
(REDACTED) – Gambling with Lives (item 4)
Helen Rhodes (item 5)
(REDACTED) (item 8)
Ben Barter (Chief of Staff & Interim Head of Governance)
Oliver Sweeney (Legal)
(REDACTED) (notes)

Apologies:

Helen Venn

Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

There were no new declarations of interest.

1. Minutes, rolling actions and forward look

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2019 were approved.

The rolling actions were reviewed, and updates agreed.

The forward look was reviewed, and updates agreed. Nicky Heathcote reminded the Board that Deloitte are observing the 20 March 2019 pre-Board workshop and 21 March 2019 Board meeting as part of the Board Effectiveness Review.

2. Chair’s business

The Chair provided updates on various matters which have progressed since the last Board meeting, including:

the key stakeholder meetings recently undertaken by the Chair
the completion of the 2018/19 Commissioner appraisals process. Formal letters of confirmation will be sent to each Commissioner in early March
the Board Effectiveness Review, which is now well underway. Bill Moyes spoke with (REDACTED) on 6 February 2019, 1 to 1 Commissioner interviews are in place with Deloitte and Exec meetings are being arranged. Two staff focus groups will take place on 11 March 2019 and Deloitte are observing a Board workshop and Board meeting on 20 and 21 March 2019 respectively. A feedback session to Board will take place on 15 May 2019
upcoming meetings between Bill Moyes and Neil McArthur with the Secretary of State (24 April 2019), and the Minister, who will be attending the 16 May 2019 Board meeting
ongoing dialogue between Bill Moyes and DCMS regarding Commissioner appointments
recruitment within the Governance team.

Tim Miller briefed the Board on the background to item 4 on agenda, sharing the format of the Gambling with Lives session.

3. National Lottery Competition

The Board noted the National Lottery Competition update paper.

4. Gambling with Lives presentation

Bill Moyes welcomed (REDACTED) and (REDACTED) from Gambling with Lives and thanked them for taking the time to talk to Board and Exec Group members.

Gambling with Lives provided an overview of their organisation, insight into (REDACTED) story, current challenges and the actions they would like to see taken by various bodies in future.

5. National Responsible Gambling Strategy

Helen Rhodes presented to the Board and highlighted the following key points:

Consultation responses have been received (the consultation closed on 15 February 2019), with a particularly pleasing volume of responses being received from consumers and those with ‘lived experience’. There has also been a series of engagement events with treatment providers, service users and other stakeholders, including a highly supportive response from Public Health England.

There are two proposed strategic priorities:

prevention and education
treatment and support, with other factors now being described as ‘enablers’, i.e. how the strategy will be delivered. These factors are:
research to inform action
evaluation
collaboration
regulation and oversight.

The Board requested that the team consider whether for presentational purposes, ‘regulation and oversight’ would be better positioned as the first enabler, to demonstrate the Commission’s track record of (and plans to) take proactive action.

Next steps focus on continued analysis of consultation responses and drafting of the strategy. The NRGS working group will meet on 6 March 2019, Board sign off will be requested on 21 March 2019 and publication of the strategy will be in April 2019 alongside the development of a strategy microsite for soft launch.

The Board approved:

that there are two key strategic priorities – prevention and education, and treatment and support
that these are supported by a number of enablers – these are the firm actions organisations will take and prioritise in order to deliver the strategy
that the structure of the Strategy is as set out in the annexe of the paper. This includes the key points of emphasis under each of the priorities and in particular the actions for Year 1 of the strategy.

In order to support their review of the final paper at the 21 March Board meeting, Board requested a glossary of terms be added as an annexe to the paper.

6. Finance Report

The Board noted the report.

7. 2019/20 National Lottery Budget

The Board noted the paper.

8. First draft 2019-20 Business Plan and Budget, Reserve Strategy and Medium-Term Financial Plan

The Board noted the paper.

9. Audit and Risk Committee (ARAC) update

The Board noted the paper, with Sarika Patel highlighting in particular the positive progress made by 4NLC with regard to risk management processes and the productive discussion which ensued at the last Committee meeting as a result.

10. Review of the meeting

The Board agreed the meeting facilitated good discussion and that the quality of papers continues to improve.

11. Any other business

The Board briefly discussed ongoing stakeholder engagement. This will be presented and discussed in detail at the Board workshop on 20 March 2019.

National Lottery Competition papers: the volume of NLC papers was briefly debated, with general Board consensus that provision of as much information as possible at an early stage continues to be favourable.