Baroness Taylor of Stevenage has tabled an amendment to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill proposing the introduction of cumulative impact assessments – renamed as “gambling impact assessments” – which focus on giving local authorities specific provisions for “preventing the grant of gambling licences.” But the Taylor amendment is hardly tailor made, there are flaws aplenty for all parties and feeding frenzy in the making for the legal advisors.
Following on from proposals in the Gambling Act Review to give local authorities the power to introduce cumulative impact assessments, Baroness Taylor of Stevenage has put forward plans to introduce the measure under the name “gambling impact assessments.”
The parliamentary under-secretary of state for MHCLG tabled the amendment to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill this week, with the legislation due to be debated in the House of Lords during a Report Stage on 13 April.
“This [alteration] would amend the Gambling Act 2005 to enable licensing authorities to adopt, and act in accordance with, policies aimed at preventing the grant of gambling licences in order to respond to (a) the cumulative impact of multiple gambling premises or (b) other reasons relating to the licensing objectives in that Act,” said Taylor in her explanatory statement.
If passed, the amendment is likely to apply to authorities across Great Britain, with councils given powers to reject applications based on what it sees as the cumulative impact of gambling premises in a designated area, or for “other reasons which relate to that licensing objective.”
That, however, will open the door to a licensing mess across the whole of Great Britain. What’s an acceptable GIA in one authority may not be in another…and the tangled web is weaved.
But Taylor is unmoved by proposals that are literally not tailor-made for either local authority or applicant.
But she was clearly not going to pick at the amendment’s poor stitching. After all, she and Lord Foster, of Bath the one-time champion of seaside resorts and now the architect of the possible demise, proposed the amendment.
“It is lawful for the licensing authority to reject the application solely on the ground that the prospective licence is within the scope of the gambling impact assessment (and therefore regardless of anything, including any legislation, which would otherwise support or require the grant of the prospective licence),” states the proposed amendment.
“But a rejection of the application is not lawful on that ground (whether by virtue of subsection (2) or otherwise) if the person applying for the prospective licence – (a) asserts in the application that the grant of the prospective licence would be reasonably consistent with the licensing objective or objectives to which the gambling impact assessment relates, and (b) then shows that the grant of the prospective licence would be reasonably consistent with that licensing objective or those licensing objectives.”
Updating members on the amendment, Gambling Business Group GM Charlotte Meller wrote: “DCMS is alert to the potential interactions between the introduction of GIAs and other areas of gambling policy, including the recent consultation on bingo premises licensing and as such it is likely that there will be a later implementation date for the GIA clause than the Royal Assent date.”
Originally published on Coinslot on March 23, 2026. Republished with permission.