Examination of Witnesses (Questions 1760
- 1766)
MONDAY 1 MARCH 2004
RT HON
TESSA JOWELL
MP, RT HON
LORD MCINTOSH
OF HARINGEY
AND MR
ELLIOT GRANT
Q1760 Jeff Ennis: Obviously analogies
are often drawn between the City and the betting exchanges.
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: Yes.
Q1761 Jeff Ennis: Do you think that
is worrying, that we are encouraging gamblers who are totally
interested in horses or dogs losing races?
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: I am
not sure anything we are doing is encouraging them. What we are
attempting to do is to give the Gambling Commission greater powers
than anybody has ever had before to freeze and then void the bets
which might be unfair. I certainly would not accept that anything
in our legislation is encouraging what you are describing.
Chairman: I think the Commons will vote
in two minutes and I have Richard Page and Lucius Falkland who
want to put more supplementaries.
Q1762 Mr Page: Lord McIntosh, you
said you were going to come back to us with how this might be
developed, if I could just leave the point with you that the Jockey
Club in the past has been very concerned it does not have the
powers to correctly investigate and carry these misdemeanours
into action and justice. They are of the view that the Gambling
Commission should be the senior partner rather than the Jockey
Club because of the stronger investigative powers which will be
invested in it, and I can only recommend that to you when you
give your reply.
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: That
seems entirely fair to me.
Q1763 Viscount Falkland: Budd recommends
that spread betting—which is quite closely allied with other
forms of betting, because most people who bet regularly on horses
and other sporting events use spread betting as well as betting
exchanges—for the time being at any rate should remain regulated
by the FSA and possibly reconsider the position later on. Have
you anything further to add to that? Have you considered any more
the relationship of spread betting to gambling operations done
by regular punters?
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: We
agree with Budd's recommendations and that is what the Bill says.
Spread betting is regulated by the FSA and we propose it should
continue to be regulated by the FSA.
Q1764 Viscount Falkland: And you
will be watching that and the other recommendations?
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: Of
course. It is a spectrum and you can have all sorts of terms in
betting exchanges which could approach spread betting.
Q1765 Viscount Falkland: In spread
betting of course you are betting against an event achieving a
certain result in exactly the same way as you do on the exchanges,
so there is a close relationship.
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: That
is right.
Q1766 Chairman: We have not had the
opportunity or the time to look into it but I think we will leave
it there. There may well be a division any second. Could I say,
Secretary of State, if the House does divide, there are only two
more areas that we wanted to ask you questions on, remote gambling
and also the lotteries and prize competitions issue. Would you
be willing to come back after a division for another 15 or 20
minutes?
Tessa Jowell: Of course.
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: Would
you forgive me if I did not, Chairman? I have a plane to catch.
Chairman: You must catch your plane.
There is a division in the Commons so the Committee will suspend
and then we will sit for a further 20 minutes.
The Committee suspended from 4.50 pm to
5.05 pm for a division in the House of Commons
Chairman: There is now a division in
the Lords and I therefore propose we adjourn completely and end
the sitting and that the questions on remote gambling and on lotteries
and prize competitions we will deal with through correspondence
with the Secretary of State, who I know has to leave by 5.30 anyway.
So I thank Mr Grant, as the one remaining witness. I will not
say it has been an afternoon of Big Brother but you have
survived to the very end. Will you pass on our thanks personally
to the Secretary of State and the Minister for coming here this
afternoon. There are obviously a lot of issues in which the Committee
is interested and we are reassured that you are very interested
in the conclusions that we reach in our report which we hope to
publish on 7 April. Thank you very much.
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