Gambling Minister claims white paper will arrive in “coming weeks”

The new Gambling Minister Paul Scully has confirmed the white paper into the Gambling Act 2005 review will be published in the “coming weeks”.

Scully replaced former Gambling Minister Damian Collins after he spent just three months in the role and left the government days after new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took the keys to Number 10.

Scully has been a Conservative MP since 2015 and previously served as a junior minister in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Scully has rolled out a previous line used by former Gambling Minister Chris Philp and those within the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), that the white paper will be released in the “coming weeks”.

Responding to a written question from Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who had asked DCMS chief Michelle Donelan when she planned to publish the white paper, Scully moved to establish the department’s strategy.

Scully said: “The Gambling Act review is a comprehensive and evidence-led review of gambling regulation to ensure it is fit for the digital age. We will publish a white paper setting out our conclusions in the coming weeks.”

Scully was also questioned on the relevance of the Delphi study from Public Health England which is reported to have been lent on heavily by Philp.

The report has since been dismissed in some circles for its lack of breadth and the extrapolation of data from a small study in Sweden.

Scully said: “The Commission has not provided any formal advice or notification to the department on the report’s content or recommendations. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is reviewing the evidence published in the PHE’s review of the social and economic costs of gambling, and plans to publish an update.

Scully has been drafted in to oversee the review, despite a lack of evidence regarding his interaction with the industry or current trends.

According to the Hansard, Scully hasn’t mentioned gambling or the white paper in his speeches or written answers since becoming an MP in 2015.

The white paper was originally delivered by Philp early this year to then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

However, political upheaval, which saw Johnson ousted from Downing Street and his successor Liz Truss last just six weeks in the job, has seen the white paper put on the backburner.

Betting and Gaming Council CEO Michael Dugher revealed the government hopes to release the document before Christmas, which would algin with Scully’s claim it will be published in the coming weeks.

Parliament will break for Christmas recess on 21 December and not return until 9 January, giving Scully a short window in which to deliver on his comments.

Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith previously claimed Donelan was “completely new to the idea” of the white paper, and with Scully’s apparent lack of insight, this could lead to further issues with the document’s final release.

Credit: UK Parliament/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/