Agenda and minutes

Members and officers must declare any disclosable pecuniary interests in relation to any business on the agenda.  Declarations should also be made at any stage such an interest becomes apparent during the meeting.

If in doubt contact the Legal or Democratic Services representative for this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest or substitutions.

To receive any questions from Members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 11.2

(Note: Public Question Time will operate for a maximum of 30 minutes.)

There were no questions from the public.

To approve the minutes of the Licensing Committee meetings held on the XX XX 20XX

Resolved: that the minutes of the Licensing Committee on the 4 March 2019 and the Licensing Regulatory Sub-committees of the 20 December 2018 and the 17 June 2019, be approved as the correct records and be signed by the Chairman

To consider any items the Chairman of the meeting considers to be urgent

There were no items raised under urgency provisions.

To consider a report by the Director for Communities, copy attached as item 5.

Before the Committee was a report by the Director for Communities, a copy of which was circulated to all Members, a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of these minutes.

The report asked the Committee  to review the draft Statement of Gambling Licensing Policy in relation to the Gambling Act 2005, and then invite Council to endorse its recommendations and adopt an updated policy at the meeting of Full Council on 31 October 2019.

In accordance with the statutory requirements of the Gambling Act 2005 (the act) the Council’s Statement of Gambling Licensing Policy had been reviewed following consultation with the authorities, stakeholders, interested parties and the public. A list of consultees was attached at Appendix A to the report.

Changes to the policy were incorporated including new sections on:

·         Section D - Permits, Notices & Registrations

·         Section F - Health & Wellbeing

Other sections had minor amendments but changes were generally limited to the updating of the policy to reflect changes made to the Gambling Commission’s Guidance to licensing authorities (5th edition – September 2015 and updated in September 2016).

The most significant amendments and additions to the policy related to:

·         premises licences and requirement for local risk assessments (page 15 – 19)

·         Information sharing and GDPR requirements (page 10 – 11)

There were also some minor amendments to incorporate name & date changes and others reflecting changes to the legislation.

The draft Gambling Policy was attached at Appendix B.

All proposed changes to the existing policy were highlighted in the draft policy in black type. Suggested changes resulting from representation during consultation, and which were deemed non-controversial, were highlighted in black type and underlined.

During consideration of the item, Members sought clarification regarding the penalties for not undertaking risk assessments, questioned whether there were any specific issues that needed to be reflected in the policy and sought clarification regarding the placement of warning notices near to gambling machines.

Officers highlighted that paragraph 14.13 outlined the minimum criteria that the Licensing Authority would expect a local risk assessment to consider. Designated premises supervisors were responsible for gambling machines situated in licensed premises and the risk assessments for those premises would need to document how staff were being trained in relation to the use of gambling machines. 

Resolved:

The Committee recommended the adoption of the draft Statement of Gambling Licensing Policy to full Council.