Meeting documents

1

DECLARATION OF  INTEREST

No declaration of interest made by any Member or Officer.

2

MINUTES

The minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee held on 9th May, 2006 were confirmed as a true record. (Council Volume 19.09.2006, pages 74 - 75)

3

THE GAMBLING ACT 2005

The Principal Trading Standards Officer reported on the new Gambling Act 2005 which replaces the existing 30 year old law which is considered inadequate as a means of controlling modern issues such as online gambling and the changes to society’s views on gambling. Main changes to the legislation are aimed to reduce the criminal aspect of gambling, to be fair and open and to protect young people and vulnerable persons. A copy of the Draft Statement of Principles in respect of the Gambling Act 2005 was attached to the report. The Officer stated the draft is currently subject to public consultation with the final draft of the Policy being submitted to the County Council in December for adoption.

The Officer reported that all matters relating to the Act are mainly delegated to the Licensing Committee with the exception of :

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The three year licensing policy;

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Policy not to permit casinos

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Fee setting

Licensing Committees may then delegate further to a Licensing Sub-Committee and Officers with a suggested scheme of delegation similar in approach to that used for the Licensing Act 2003. Should representations be received to an application there would be a need for hearings to be held in a similar way to those held under the Licensing Act 2003.

Local Authorities will be responsible for licensing gambling premises, the granting of permission for lower category gaming machines and the registration of society lotteries below certain prescribed prize levels.  The Officer drew attention to the three types of conditions which may be attached to a premises licence viz.:

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Mandatory conditions

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Default conditions

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Licensing authority conditions;

To date, no funding whatsoever for the implementation of the Licensing Act 2005 has been received from the Government. This is a real cause for concern with the Officer fearing this may well be left until the last minute. Likewise, no guidelines have been issued with regard to fee setting. Ongoing costs are envisaged by the Government as being met through initial applications and annual fees (for premises licences) and fees for permits and other permissions. Premises Licence Fees will be set via a series of bands with a prescribed maximum in each band. Licensing Authorities will then be able to set their own precise fees within these bands, limited to cost recovery. The Secretary of State will set the fees for permits and other services.

Previous experience from the Licensing Act 2003 had shown the transition to a new licensing regime to be resource intensive, particularly in advising businesses as well as the administrative process of receiving and processing new licences. A further report will be presented to the Committee in due course to deal with the temporary and permanent resource issues facing the Authority as well as the estimated budget issues when fee levels are known.

The timetable drawn up showed the target date for full implementation to be September 2007 having accepted licence applications as from January 2007 following completion of the consultation process and adoption of the Policy by the County Council in December

2006.

The Officer was unable to answer specific questions in relation to Prize Bingo, Voluntary Bingo Callers, Lottery Fees etc. as the guidelines and details have not been received. He stated the information will be made available to Members once the guidelines and details have been received. In addition, Members expressed concerns regarding the costs involved in implementing and running the service and proposed that this aspect should be closely monitored.

Members thanked the Officer and his department for the work being undertaken and expressed their confidence in the smooth implementation of the Gambling Act 2005.

RESOLVED:

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To note the content of this report including the current timetable for the implementation for the Gambling Act 2005;

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To invite Members to submit any comments on the Gambling act 2005 to the Officer;

4

LICENSING USER SATISFACTION RESULTS

The Principal Trading Standards Officer presented a report outlining the results of a customer satisfaction questionnaire survey carried out by his Department so as to measure the level of satisfaction of the businesses who used the Licensing Service during the last twelve months.

A 30% response to the questionnaires had been received with most of the responses showing over 90% satisfaction whilst the question of the officer being police and courteous achieved a 100% response. The lowest response was against the businesses knowledge of the Corporate complaints procedure and the Officer acknowledged further education and information was required in this respect.

The Committee welcomed the positive response to the questionnaire and thanked the Officer for his department’s hard work during a time of pressure in implementing the new legislation.

RESOLVED to accept the report and note the contents.

5

LICENSING UPDATE

The Principal Trading Standards Officer presented a brief report giving an approximation of

costs to the Authority in administering the new Licensing Functions. He emphasised the figures were estimates only and had not been confirmed by the Council’s Finance Department.

Members agreed that the County Council should consider means of meeting additional costs,

by possibly increasing the fees, should this become necessary.

RESOLVED to note the estimated figures and to urge the Council’s Finance Department

to either approve or amend the figures as soon as practicable.

6

TRAINING

To note that a training session for members of this Committee on the responsibilities under the Gambling Act 2005 would be held on 9th November, 2006 at Gwynedd County Council Offices, Penrallt, Caernarfon.

COUNCILLOR JOHN ARTHUR JONES

CHAIRMAN