Report
Annual report and accounts 2024 to 2025
The Gambling Commission's 2024 to 2025 annual report and accounts. For the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.
Contents
- Foreword
- Performance report
- Accountability report
- Financial statements
- Notes on the accounts
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- Statement of accounting policies
- Statement of operating costs by operating segment
- Expenditure
- Income cash receipts
- Property, plant and equipment
- Right of use assets
- Intangible assets
- Financial instruments
- Cash and cash equivalents
- Trade and other receivables
- Trade and other payables
- Provisions and charges
- Retirement benefit obligations
- Lease liabilities
- Contingent liabilities disclosed under IAS 37
- Related party transactions
- Amounts of income to the Consolidated Fund
- Events after the reporting period
- Appendices
Directors’ report – Board of Commissioners
The Gambling Commission is made up of a Board of Commissioners (the Board), appointed by the Secretary of State, and led by the Commission’s Chair. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andrew Rhodes is a Commissioner, appointed by the Secretary of State, with all other Commissioners being non-executive. The Commission’s key decision-making body is the Board of Commissioners. Details of the Chair and Commissioners for 2024 to 2025, including their declared interests, are detailed as follows.
Marcus Boyle announced his decision to step down as Chair of the Commission in November 2024, with his term concluding on 31 January 2025. Charles Counsell, who was the Commission’s Senior Independent Director at the time, was appointed as Interim Chair from 1 February 2025 by the Secretary of State. David Rossington was appointed as Interim Senior Independent Director, also from 1 February 2025.
The appointment terms of 2 Commissioners (Catharine Seddon and John Baillie) ended in April 2024, and the appointment term of another Commissioner (Stephen Cohen) ended in November 2024.
The Commission is managed by the Executive Committee, led by the CEO. The Executive Committee forms the Commission’s corporate leadership and is responsible for strategic decision-making.
Details of the Commissioners and Executive team for 2024 to 2025, including their declared interests, are detailed in the Directors’ report.
Charles Counsell OBE
Interim Chair (from 1 February 2025) and Senior Independent Director (from 24 April 2024 to 31 January 2025)
Charles has been a Board Member of Government Arm’s Length Bodies since 2011, first as Executive Director of Automatic Enrolment (AE) at The Pensions Regulator (TPR), then as Chief Executive of the Money Advice Service (MAS) and then as Chief Executive of The Pensions Regulator (TPR). Prior to this, he spent many years as a Management Consultant leading and delivering large change programmes.
Alongside Charles’ role at the Commission, he is also a non-executive member of Scottish Widows pensions Independent Governance Committee. Charles was briefly a Trustee of Independent Age but resigned when he became aware of a conflict of interest after his appointment.
David Rossington CB
Commissioner (Interim Senior Independent Director from 1 February 2025)
David is a former senior civil servant. He has worked for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), including as Finance Director, and other Government departments, and has extensive knowledge of gambling policy and the National Lottery.
David has been a member of several boards, which has enabled him to undertake a wide range of work on policy, finance and efficiency, and commercial and delivery.
Since finishing full time work, he has assisted the Commission as an independent member of the Programme Board for the 4NL Programme, formally the National Lottery Competition Committee, and is also deputy chair of the Advisory Committee on National Records and Archives, which works with The National Archives. He is Treasurer of a charity for veterans (The Stoll Foundation).
David holds a degree in History and French from Oxford, a master’s in public policy from the Kennedy School, Harvard University, and an Economics MSc from Birkbeck College, London. David took an accountancy qualification while a civil servant, although is no longer in practice.
Claudia Mortimore
Commissioner
Claudia brings over 25 years’ experience of criminal law and regulation to her role as a Gambling Commissioner.
She spent the first 10 years of her career working as a barrister then, after a career break to raise 3 children, prosecuted drugs, tax and money-laundering offences for the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office and fraudulent trading offences for the Department for Business.
Since 2013, Claudia has worked in senior positions in the Enforcement Division of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the body which regulates accountants, auditors and actuaries in the public interest, and which sets the UK Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes.
During her time at the FRC, Claudia has led major investigations into serious and complex audit and accountancy failures. Since 2017, she has been a key member of the Enforcement Division’s Senior Leadership Team, which has steered the Division through a period of significant change and growth.
Claudia has a particular interest in Diversity and Inclusion and has also played a key role in promoting the importance of mental health and well-being at the FRC.
Helen Dodds OStJ
Commissioner
Helen Dodds is an international lawyer, consultant and board member. She is a director and trustee of the St John’s Eye Hospital Group, a director of Legal UK, and an Honorary Senior Fellow of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.
She was formerly a board member of the Human Tissue Authority and the London Court of International Arbitration. In her executive career she was for many years Global Head of Legal, Dispute Resolution at Standard Chartered Bank.
Helen Phillips
Commissioner
Helen is a former front-line regulator, having held senior roles at the Environment Agency from where she was recruited to be the founding Chief Executive of Natural England. Helen is also a former board member of a large, regulated organisation in the water industry.
Since moving to non-executive work in 2015, Helen has chaired the Legal Services Board, the oversight regulator of lawyers in England and Wales until 2023, was a founding board member until 2021 of Social Work England, the regulator of social workers in England, and has also chaired Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust from 2015 to 2024.
Helen’s current non-executive portfolio of roles reflects her continuing interest in professional standards and healthcare. She currently chairs the Chartered Insurance Institute, the standards body for general insurance and financial planning professionals, and in 2023 was appointed Chair of NHS Professionals Ltd, the staff bank that provides 120,000 professionals to the NHS.
Lloydette Bai-Marrow
Chair of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee
Lloydette Bai-Marrow is an anti-corruption expert and economic crime lawyer, specialising in corporate compliance and investigations. She is the Managing Partner of Parametric Global Consulting, a corporate investigations and compliance consultancy.
She worked as a senior prosecutor in various UK government departments, including the Serious Fraud Office. Lloydette chairs the Board of Spotlight on Corruption, a UK-based anti-corruption charity, and serves as a trustee for the Unite Foundation. She sits on the Legal Panel for WhistleblowersUK.
She is a Senior Visiting Lecturer at the International Anti-Corruption Academy and a member of the Conduct Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
She is a Co-Founder and Director of the Black Women in Leadership Network (BWIL), a non-profit network committed to increasing the representation of black women in leadership and decision-making positions.
Sheree Howard
Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee (from 10 April 2024)
Sheree is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and has over 30 years' experience in the UK financial services industry, both in insurance and banking. Initially following the established actuarial path of working in a life assurance company, Sheree saw the opportunity to transfer the risk focus of her actuarial training into general insurance with senior roles in underwriting and pricing, establishing corporate actuarial functions, finance, capital management and risk management.
After a period working in insurance and banking in the areas of risk and compliance, Sheree joined the Financial Conduct Authority in 2017 and having been the Executive Director of Risk and Compliance Oversight for a number of years, is now the Executive Director of Authorisations.
She brings experience and knowledge of the process of regulation, alongside a key focus on risk management, audit and controls.
She was previously a Governor, including Chair, for more than 10 years of a maintained special needs school, and has provided pro bono advice to several other charities.
Previous Commissioners
Marcus Boyle
Chair (resigned 31 January 2025)
Marcus was appointed Chair of the Commission on 5 September 2021. He has held senior leadership roles in public and private sector bodies.
In addition to chairing the Commission, he is also a member of the Advisory Board of Freston Ventures and a Trustee of the Serpentine Gallery.
Previously, he has been an equity partner for 2 leading global professional services and chaired the British American Drama Academy.
Stephen Cohen
Commissioner (Commissioner term ended on 11 November 2024)
Stephen has over 45 years’ experience in asset management in Asia, Europe, and the USA. He has worked as a portfolio manager, in business development, operations and in IT. Stephen is the Chair of the JPMorgan Japanese Investment Trust plc, a Commissioner at the Civil Service Commission and Chair of Audit for both the Advanced Research Invention Agency and the Schroders Capital Global Innovation Trust plc.
Catharine Seddon
Senior Independent Director (Commissioner term ended on 10 April 2024)
Catharine spent 20 years as a filmmaker before taking up public non-executive roles. She started as a graduate trainee producer with the BBC and soon specialised in high-end film documentaries, eventually setting up her own production company.
She became a magistrate in 2000 and later left television to take up a variety of other judicial roles in the Courts and Tribunals Service, to become a member of the Human Tissue Authority, to sit on the Determinations Panel of The Pensions Regulator and on the Legal Services Board (LSB).
Catharine is now the deputy chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), and a board member of both The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CafCass). She is a tutor for the Civil Service College and sits on the Disciplinary Committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS). Catharine is also a trustee for the special needs charity CPotential.
John Baillie
Chair of Audit and Risk Committee (Commissioner term ended on 10 April 2024)
John Baillie is a Chartered Accountant and a former partner of a Big Four firm in Scotland and then London.
He is a past chair of the Accounts Commission for Scotland, the Scottish local authority watchdog, and served 2 three-year terms. He was also Chair of Audit Scotland, the Scottish equivalent of the National Audit Office.
He was a member of the Reporting Panel of the UK Competition and Markets Authority for 9 years. John was professor of finance and accountancy at the University of Glasgow. He was also a visiting professor of accountancy at University of Edinburgh and has held similar appointments at other Scottish universities.
Last updated: 15 October 2025
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