Speeches by Ballinger.

“I will not accept that. Having met lots of people with lived experience of gambling and having seen the evidence in our report, I know there is a clear link between gambling advertising and halting the recovery of people with gambling addictions. An argument often used by the industry is that more evidence is needed, b…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered gambling advertising. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris, particularly as you have taken such an interest in gambling harm over many years. I am grateful to be able to open this debate on gambling advertising and its impact across the United Kingdom,…”

“When the information was shared with the Prime Minister, the whole of No. 10 would have been able to know that information. Or how many individuals, roughly, in that circle might have known about it?”

“I am afraid that is not correct. The Gambling Commission has not written to me challenging my figures. Members of the gambling industry have written to the all-party group challenging some of the figures in other reports, but our figures are from the Gambling Commission’s own survey on children and young people. The st…”

“The hon. Member is making his point very well. He is talking about the unregulated market, which we also have real concerns about. Does he share my concern that some unregulated market advertising is being mixed with the regulated market advertising? Right now, we have premier league football clubs with unregulated fro…”

“I will not give way at this point, because I am just wrapping up—”

“I will check, but I think my hon. Friend the Member for Worthing West responded on what the all-party group may have said. I should say very briefly that there seems to have been a big debate about the unregulated market and the regulated market. I think that is important. There were questions about the size of the unr…”

“The hon. Member talks about Formula 1, as well as other sports, but does he remember the rules that changed the tobacco sponsorship of Formula 1 and the strong resistance of that industry to those changes because of the arguments he is making right now? Does he also recognise that Formula 1 has become more successful a…”

“What is the penalty under the Official Secrets Act for sharing such information?”

“Finally, Sir Olly Robbins said to the Committee this week that he felt there should be “prosecutions” for the leaking of this information. Do you share that view?”

“Absolutely. This has been driven a lot by the argument that the unregulated industry will somehow capture the market. If we are talking about restrictions on gambling advertising, that should include such restrictions on the unregulated gambling market, which as we can see is already advertising in football and online …”

“It is in the report. I have just told you.”

“Thank you, Mrs Harris. I thank all Members who have joined in this lively debate: the hon. Member for Bridlington and The Wolds (Charlie Dewhirst), my hon. Friend the Member for Worthing West (Dr Cooper), the Minister, the shadow Minister and the Liberal Democrat spokesperson. We have covered a lot of issues and it has…”

“Sitting adjourned.”

“The APPG recognise that horseracing and greyhound racing are much more dependent on gambling advertising than other industries; that is why we made that separation.”

“You have rightly talked about the importance of keeping this highly classified information in the vetting system away from the Committee and away from the public generally, but there appear to be at least two occasions where this information was leaked to the press. Two days after you informed the Prime Minister, there…”

“They have not written to me. We need to properly safeguard the next generation from gambling advertising that aims to normalise an activity that has been proven to be extremely harmful, and something that the Government have the power to act on today.”

“How common is it for you to have these borderline cases with UKSV, where you have to make a judgment call after not-clear recommendations?”

“Now that the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister has suspended the ability for the FCDO to do that, what impact do you think that that will have on Department postings and the ability to get people into the right place?”

“I have one final question. You were PUS when the press first became aware that Peter Mandelson, in their words, “had failed his security vetting.” How do you think that was leaked and what do you think that says about the integrity of the UKSV process?”