Written Answers — Culture Media and Sport: London Olympics (19 Dec 2006)

Malcolm Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much of the construction area of the Olympic Stadium has been investigated for contamination; what was discovered in each area which has been examined; and what techniques for remediation will be applied by the London Development Agency.

Written Answers — Environment Food and Rural Affairs: Soil Guideline Values (7 Dec 2006)

Malcolm Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) who is on the Task Force looking at soil guideline values; how often it has met; what its main priorities are; and what the timetable is for publication of the values for substances being reviewed; (2) what steps have been taken to ensure that soil guideline values are an effective way of measuring significant...

Written Answers — Environment Food and Rural Affairs: Contaminated Land (6 Dec 2006)

Malcolm Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) who will be responsible for the treatment of contaminated areas in the event that no specific polluter can be identified; (2) what enforcement measures may be taken against polluters of contaminated land.

Written Answers — Communities and Local Government: Rural Areas: Maps (5 Dec 2006)

June 2006

Casinos
6 June 2006

Mr. Moss:  To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what reserve powers she has under the Gambling Act 2005 to remove the licences of casinos in the event of problem gambling increasing in the surrounding area.

Mr. Caborn:  The Gambling Commission will have the power to revoke operating licences under sections 119 and 120 of the Gambling Act; and licensing authorities will have the power to revoke premises licences under section 202 of the Act. In either case, the decision whether to take any action will be predicated on the manner in which the casino is being operated, rather than the effects of the operation on the local community. An increase in problem gambling in a particular area could be evidence that a casino, or indeed other gambling establishment in the area, is not operating as it should, and that investigation or action may be needed. In addition, if problem gambling did appear to be an issue in a particular area, or around casinos generally, conditions could be imposed to address the issue: on individual licences by the Commission and licensing authorities, and on licences of a particular class or type by the Commission or the Secretary of State."

Casinos
5 June 2006

Mr. Moss:  To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what criteria will be used to assess the level of problem gambling in an area surrounding a new casino licensed under the Gambling Act 2005.

Mr. Caborn:  My Department is in the process of tendering for a scoping study to establish the best means of identifying, measuring and assessing the social and economic impacts of the 17 new casinos that are being permitted under the Gambling Act 2005. The study is scheduled to be completed in the autumn and will be published once the Department has had the opportunity to consider it.

Betting and Gambling
5 June 2006

Mr. Moss:  To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what measures are in place to assist (a) the Gambling Commission and (b) sports governing bodies to monitor betting placed from outside the UK on sporting events placed from outside the UK which take place within the UK.

Mr. Caborn:  While the Gambling Commission has no jurisdiction over betting operators licensed outside Great Britain, it is continuing to build upon its co-operative relationships with overseas gambling regulators. The Government have worked with sports governing bodies to develop a 10-point plan which facilitates information sharing between sports bodies and betting operators. So far 11 sports bodies have signed up to the voluntary plan and an increasing number have Memorandum of Understanding with betting operators allowing for the sharing of information about suspicious betting patterns or individuals betting with those operators here or abroad.

Mr. Moss:  To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what consideration her Department has given to introducing a levy on betting and gaming in connection with other sporting activity analogous to that which applies to horse racing.

Mr. Caborn:  The horse race betting levy recognises the unique relationship between that sport and the betting industry. Horse racing is a sport whose primary purpose is to provide a betting product. In that respect, it is a symbiotic relationship not shared by other sports, except perhaps greyhound racing which has a separate arrangement with bookmakers. Consequently, the Government currently have no plans to introduce a betting levy for other sports.

Mr. Moss:  To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what assessment the Government have made of the effects on the economy of the liberalisation of the betting and gaming industries.

Mr. Caborn:  The Government commissioned economic (studies to inform the policies that are incorporated in the Gambling Act 2005. The results of some of these studies are included in the Regulatory Impact Assessment which accompanied the Act Assent and can be found in the Libraries of both Houses.

Licensing Act
5 June 2006

Mr. Moss:  Will not the public think it completely barmy, if typical of this incompetent Government, that a pub needs a licence for one or two musicians in the bar but does not need one to show World cup matches on big screens to hundreds of inebriated supporters? Will the Secretary of State tell us just how much taxpayers’ money is being used on extra policing, under the alcohol misuse enforcement campaign, in order to massage the crime and disorder figures associated with showing World cup matches?

Ms. Jowell:  I shall certainly provide the hon. Gentleman with the figures for spending on the AMEC campaign, which is just concluding. Even he, I think, will judge that spending on past campaigns, which have seen a reduction in alcohol-related violence, has represented excellent value for money.  As for two-in-a-bar versus big screens, the hon. Gentleman knows that the arguments were well ventilated when the Act was debated. Parliament reached its conclusions, and we are getting on with implementing them in a way that reduces alcohol-related crime and disorder, keeps children safe from harm and gives responsible adults a better time than they would otherwise have.

May 2006

Horse Racing Levy
24 May 2006

Mr. Moss:  To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much was received by the horse racing industry from the Statutory Levy payment by UK bookmakers in each of the last six years; and what the total VAT payment on the Levy payment was in each year.

Mr. Caborn:  For the last six years the Horserace Betting Levy contributed the following amounts to the horse racing industry:

	£ million
2005-06	1 91
2004-05	97.3
2003-04	102
2002-03	74.5
2001-02	67
2000-01	55.2
1 estimated

To date the Levy has not been liable for VAT.

London Olympics
24 May 2006

Mr. Moss:  To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games’s legal contract with the International Olympic Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games permits betting on individual sporting events.

Mr. Caborn:  Presently, British betting operators are permitted to take bets on a range of sporting events including the Olympic Games. We have no plans to legislate otherwise. LOCOG is aware of the existing legal position relating to betting in Great Britain.

Reshuffle
24 May 2006

Mr. Malcolm Moss (North-East Cambridgeshire) (Con): Will the Prime Minister confirm that he did indeed ask the Deputy Prime Minister to give up his grace and favour mansion in Dorneywood?

The Prime Minister (Mr. Tony Blair): I have no intention whatsoever of discussing the reshuffle or any matters associated with it.

April 2006

Soil Guideline Values
18 April 2006

Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her Answer of 22 March 2006, Official Report, column 444W, on soil guideline values, when officials from her Department met officials from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister over the last 12 months to discuss the issue; what meetings are planned for the next six months (a) with and (b) without representatives of the Environment Agency and the Health Protection Agency; and when she expects to come to a decision regarding soil guideline values for the compound benzo(a) pyrene. [62561]

Mr. Morley: My officials are following up on the work of the Soil Guideline Values Task Force. Other Departments and Agencies are and will be involved at the appropriate time. A meeting was held recently which ODPM officials were unable to attend. They attended a technical workshop of the Task Force on 27 March. There will be further meeting opportunities on the follow-up work, with any appropriate attendance by other organisations.

March 2006

Casinos
29 March 2006

Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many of the applications for casino licences under the Gambling Act 1968 in the last 10 years were made under a D2 leisure planning re-classification. [61547]

Mr. Caborn: This information is not collected centrally.

Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for East Devon (Mr. Swire) on 20 March 2006, Official Report, columns 14-15W, on gambling, if she will break down the number of applications by location. [61548]

Mr. Caborn: Further to the answer to the hon. Member for East Devon (Mr. Swire) 20 March 2006, Official Report, columns 14-15W, the table sets out the locations of the applications for certificates of consent in respect of new casinos and substituted, extended or altered premises that were received by the Gambling Commission from 1997-98 until the present.

Two minor adjustments have been made to the figures given in the previous answer. The Gambling Commission has revised downwards the figure for applications for certificates of consent for new casinos in 2000-01 from 7 to 6. The total number of applications for new casinos in 2004-05 was 23, not 25, and the number of applications for substitute, extended or altered premises in 2004-05 was 6, not 4.

	New Casinos	Substitute/extended/ altered premises
1997-98	Nottingham	Birkenhead
	Salford	Glasgow
		Leeds
		London (4)
		Newcastle
		Southend
1998-99	Birmingham	Birmingham
	Blackpool	Hull
	Hull	Lytham St. Annes
	Liverpool	Margate
	Luton	Teesside
	Northampton
	Southend
	Walsall
2000-01	Birmingham	Great Yarmouth
	Liverpool	Hull
	London	London
	Manchester	Manchester (2)
	Teesside	Plymouth
	West Bromwich
2001-02	Bristol	Huddersfield
	Leicester (2)	Portsmouth
	Southampton	Sunderland
	Stockport
2002-03	Blackpool (2)	Birmingham
	Bradford	Cardiff (2)
	Newcastle	Glasgow
	Northampton	Northampton
	Stockport
	Stoke
	Swansea
	Warley
	Wolverhampton
2003-04	Aberdeen	Bradford
	Birmingham	Manchester
	Bolton	Ramsgate
	Bristol
	Glasgow
	Newcastle
	Nottingham (2)
	Scarborough
	Swansea
	Walsall
	Wolverhampton
2004-05	Aberdeen	Brighton
	Birmingham	Liverpool
	Blackpool	Manchester
	Bradford	Portsmouth
	Bristol	Southend
	Coventry	Swansea
	Derby
	Dudley
	Dundee
	Hull
	Leeds (2)
	Leicester
	Liverpool
	London (2)
	Reading
	Sheffield
	Southend
	Swansea
	Teesside (2)
	Warley
2005-06 (to end	Aberdeen (2)	Aberdeen
February 2006)	Birkenhead	London (3)
	Birmingham (2)	Nottingham
	Blackpool	Reading
	Brighton (2)	Southampton
	Bristol	Stoke
	Cardiff (2)
&nb