Report
Annual report and Accounts 2019 to 2020
Making gambling fairer and safer
Corporate governance report
Our Directors’ report and Board of Commissioners:
- Bill Moyes, Chairman
- Catharine Seddon, Senior Independent Director
- John Baillie, Interim Chair of Audit and Risk Committee
- Carol Brady MBE, Commissioner
- Stephen Cohen, Chair of National Lottery Competition Committee
- Trevor Pearce CBE QPM, Chair of National Lottery Committee and Remuneration Committee
- Jonathan Scott, Commissioner – Jonathan left his role as a Commissioner on 30 April 2020
- Simone Pennie, Commissioner – appointment ended 31 May 2019
- Alison Hastings, Commissioner – appointment ended 30 August 2019
- Sarika Patel, Commissioner – appointment ended 25 November 2019.
New Commissioner appointments
The following appointments commenced from 30 April 2020:
- Terry Babbs
- Brian Bannister
- Jo Hill
Each were appointed by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport as Commissioners for five years.
Register of disclosable interests
Board members completed their annual declarations of interest and are asked to declare any relevant interests in agenda items at the start of each board meeting and absent themselves from those discussions. No directorships or other significant interests were held by board members that may have conflicted with their management responsibilities.
Directors’ disclosure
As far as the directors are aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the auditors have not been made aware. All reasonable steps have been taken by the directors in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of this information.
Fees and charges
The Commission aims to ensure that the costs incurred in delivering the organisation’s strategic objectives are recovered from the industry through application and licence fees set by the Secretary of State. We periodically review our costs to drive efficiency and value for money as well as review our approach to cost recovery via fees to see how it could be made more equitable. As a direct result of this process, the Commission delivered, through the 2017 fees review, a reduction in licence fees from 2017 to 2018.
Current application and licence fees range from £195 to £494,856 dependent on operator size and licence type. The Commission’s total income from fees and other sources was £19.90 million for the year (2018-19: £18.99 million). Further analysis of fees and charges is provided in the performance analysis section.
Statement of the Commission and Accounting Officer’s responsibilities
Under the Gambling Act, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has directed the Commission to prepare for each financial year a statement of accounts in the form and on the basis set out in the Accounts Direction. The accounts are prepared on an accrual basis and must give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Commission and of its income and expenditure, changes in taxpayers’ equity and cash flows for the financial year.
In preparing the accounts the Commission and Accounting Officer are required to comply with the requirements of the Government Financial Reporting Manual.
In particular to:
- observe the Accounts Direction issued by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, including the relevant accounting and disclosure requirements, and apply suitable accounting policies on a consistent basis
- make judgments and estimates on a reasonable basis
- state whether applicable accounting standards as set out in the Government Financial Reporting Manual have been followed, and disclose and explain any material departures in the financial statements
- prepare the financial statements on a going concern basis
- confirm that the Annual Report and Accounts as a whole is fair, balanced and understandable and take personal responsibility for the Annual Report and Accounts and the judgements required for determining that it is fair, balanced and understandable.
The Accounting Officer of DCMS has designated me as the Commission’s Chief Executive Officer as Accounting Officer of the Commission. The responsibilities of an Accounting Officer, including responsibility for the propriety and regularity of the public finances for which the Accounting Officer is answerable, for keeping proper records and for safeguarding the Commission’s assets, are set out in Managing Public Money published by the HM Treasury.
As the Accounting Officer I have taken all the steps that I ought to have taken to make myself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the Commission’s auditors are aware of that information. So far as I am aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the auditors are unaware.
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Last updated: 12 July 2023
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