Framework Document

Introduction

1. The Gambling Act recently passed by Parliament will allow three new types of casinos to operate in Britain. One regional casino will be permitted, along with eight large and eight small casinos. The new casinos will be large-scale entertainment complexes, offering a range of gambling activities and non-gambling leisure facilities. Regional and large casinos have the potential to bring in major investment and economic regeneration to the areas where they are located.

2. This framework document is intended to augment the formal terms of reference of the Panel, which are attached at Annex 1.

Aims and objectives

3. In order to ensure that the impact of the new casinos can be assessed on the basis of a broad range of information and experience, the Advisory Panel has been asked to identify areas for the new casinos which will provide:

a good range of types of areas; and,
a good geographical spread of areas across Britain.

4. The Panel will also ensure that those areas selected are willing to license a new casino. Subject to these criteria, the Panel has been asked to choose areas in need of economic development and regeneration (as measured by employment and other social deprivation factors) and likely to benefit in regeneration terms from a casino.

Guiding principles for the Panel

5. The overall guiding principles for the Panel are set out in the Casino Advisory Panel Code of Practice.

Operational Overview

(i) Panel membership

6. The Casino Advisory Panel will be led by a Chairman, Professor Stephen Crow CB who has been appointed by the Secretary of State following an open competition. The appointment is for a fixed term. He will be supported by 4 other members; Christopher Collison, James Froomberg, Neil Mundy and Deep Sagar, also appointed after an open competition.

(ii) Panel meetings

7. The Panel will meet regularly at a place convenient to the Panel members. There will be no set dates each month for meetings. The minutes of Panel meetings will be published on the Panel’s website.

(iii) Secretariat

8. The Panel will have a Secretary to support it, provided by the sponsoring Department (DCMS). The Secretary will be based in DCMS and this will be the contact address for all correspondence with the Panel.

9. Secretariat support is provided by the Department but the Secretary will work directly to the Panel and the Chair will be responsible for developing and appraising the performance of the Secretary.

10. The Chair and Secretary will keep under review whether any additional secretariat support is required and will liaise as necessary with the Department.

(iv) Panel reports

11. The Panel will start work on 3rd October and will report by the end of 2006.

12. The Panel will also provide progress reports to the Secretary of State on a regular basis at key milestones during the period up to their final report. The milestones are expected to be as follows:

1) End January 2006
Scoping and research
Consultation with stakeholders
Requests of initial interest

2a) End January 2006
Developing criteria
Detailing process

2b) End March 2006
Submission of proposals

3) Summer 2006
Examination and evaluating of proposals

4) Mid December 2006
Consideration and reporting

13. The purpose of these reports will be to keep the Secretary of State in touch with the progress of the Panel, and to assure the Secretary of State that the work methods the Panel is adopting will result in robust and legally sustainable recommendations. The Panel’s reports to the Secretary of State will be made public.

(v) Accountability framework

14. The Secretary of State for DCMS is answerable to Parliament on all aspects of the Panel’s establishment and business.

15. Members of Parliament, Scottish Ministers, the National Assembly for Wales, Members of the European Parliament and the general public will be encouraged to write direct to the Chair of the Panel on any matters relating to its day-to-day operations.

16. The Chair will provide the Secretary of State, through the Secretary and departmental officials, with any information necessary to answer Parliamentary Questions or deal with any other Parliamentary business about matters relating to the Panel.

17. The Panel is wholly responsible for the task the Secretary of State has set. The Panel will operate independently from department, and will provide regular progress reports, through the chair, to the Secretary of State as outlined above. The Chair is responsible to the Secretary of State for the effective operation of the Panel in accordance with this Framework Document, and for meeting its objectives within the resources allocated.

(vi) Transparency

18. The Secretary of State has asked the Panel to conduct its work with the utmost transparency. The Panel’s working assumption will be that all papers it considers will be freely available to the public. These papers will include any submissions made to the Panel, as well as its own minutes of meetings and reports to the Secretary of State.

(vii) Day to day contact between the Panel and DCMS and other government departments

19. Day to day contact between the Panel and DCMS officials will be conducted through the Secretary. The Secretary will ensure that the Panel is kept informed of any central policy developments which may impact on the work of the Panel and will provide ad hoc information and progress reports as necessary to the department.

20. The primary contact for the Secretary in the Department will be David Fitzgerald, Head of Gaming and Lotteries, Gambling Division.

21. The primary contact for the Chairman of the Panel will be Andy McLellan, Head of Gambling Division.

(viii) Relationships with other bodies

22. The government has asked the Panel to invite the views of interested parties when developing its recommendations. The Panel intends to consult as widely as possible in taking its work forward. It is important to note that, in formulating its recommendations, the Panel will only be able to take into account representations which it considers are relevant to specific remit that the Panel has been set.

23. The Secretary of the Panel will be responsible for handling all correspondence and enquiries relating to the work of the Panel, including its procedures, operations and the criteria it uses to develop its recommendations.

24. DCMS officials will continue to be responsible for any correspondence relating to the establishment and terms of reference of the Panel.

(ix) Relationship with regional planning bodies in England

25. In taking forward its work the Panel will in particular invite the Regional Planning Bodies in England to identify a list of broad locations for regional casinos emerging from their work on the Regional Spatial Strategies. Before the Panel finalises its recommendation on the area for the one regional casino permitted by the Act, if it is in England, it will need to ensure that this area is compatible with the broad locations identified in the appropriate Regional Spatial Strategy or in any draft revision of Regional Spatial Strategy before the First Secretary of State.

26. The Panel will also consult with appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales on spatial strategy.

(x) Relationship with other government departments and the Scottish and Welsh executives

27. The Panel will be free to consult other government departments and the Scottish and Welsh executives, and any other agencies or NDPBs sponsored by them, that it considers relevant to its role. It will be particularly important that the Panel consults departments and agencies with specialist expertise relevant to the role of the Panel.

28. Where the Panel consults a relevant body in England, it will be expected to consult the equivalent bodies in Scotland and Wales.

29. Any advice or views expressed by these other government departments or agencies will be without prejudice to the decisions that the Secretary of State will make under Section 175(4) of the Act, or to the process of consultation with Scottish Ministers and the National Assembly for Wales as required by that Section.

(xi) Financial arrangements

30. The work of the Panel will be wholly funded by DCMS. The Chair of the Panel will be responsible for ensuring the economic, efficient and effective use of resources provided to the Panel, for the propriety and regularity of its expenditure, and for ensuring that the requirements of Government Accounting are met.

31. The Secretary of the Panel will be responsible for ensuring that day to day financial controls are in place and operating effectively.

(xii) Consultancy and research

32. The Panel will be able, within its agreed budget limits, to draw on any expert support it considers necessary for formulating its recommendations to the Secretary of State. The Panel will be required to follow the normal DCMS procurement rules.

(xiii) Legal Arrangements

33. The Panel will require public law advice concerning the matters which they need to consider for the purposes of their remit, the nature of the evidence they should look at, and the procedures which they should adopt in obtaining evidence from interested parties. To ensure the Panel’s independence from the Department, it has been agreed that its legal support should not be drawn from the Department’s own legal team.

(xiv) Press matters

34. The Panel may require press handling assistance from time to time, particularly when the need arises to make something known to outside stakeholders (such as a call for expressions of interest). As with legal arrangements, to ensure the Panel’s independence from the Department, the Panel’s press support will not be drawn from the Department’s Press Office.

(xv) Risk management

35. The Panel will follow normal procedures for assessing and dealing with risk. The Secretary to the Panel will be expected to inform the Department of any likely risk which may affect the objective or timescale of the project.

(xvi) Arrangement for changing framework document

36. The Secretary of State or the Chairman of the CAP may propose modifications to the Framework document if these appear necessary in the light of experience or to take account of changed circumstances.

Signed:

Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Chairman, Casino Advisory Panel

November 2005

Annex 1

INDEPENDENT ADVISORY PANEL: TERMS OF REFERENCE

The Secretary of State will ask the casino advisory panel to assist her in the exercise of her order making powers under Section 175(4) of the Gambling Act 2005 to determine the geographical distribution of casino premises licences. For this purpose, she is required to specify in the order which local authorities should be permitted to issue casino premises licences of a specified kind, and how many of each type of casino premises licence each specified local authority should be permitted to issue.

The criteria against which the panel will assess these submissions were set out in the government’s national policy statement on casinos published on 16 December 2004. The primary consideration will be to ensure that locations provide the best possible test of social impact. Subject to this, the criteria will also be:

to include areas in need of regeneration (as measured by employment and other social deprivation data) and which are likely to benefit in these terms from a new casino;
to ensure that those areas selected are willing to license a new casino.

The Secretary of State has asked to make its recommendations to her by the end of 2006.

DCMS
August 2005