The UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) refusal to release the evidence on affordability checks since February of 2021 has garnered criticism from conservative MP Philip Davies who claims this is “completely unacceptable”. 

Davies initially filed a freedom of information request which the commission turned down citing a claim of no outstanding public interest.

2021 affordability checks

The 2021 call for evidence mentioned a net monthly loss of ￡100 as the lowest likely threshold that could prompt an affordability check, received a record response at the time with 13,000 replies. 

Despite this, however, the results have not received any form of publication since its conclusion in February 2021. 

The choice to forgo publication of the results was initially criticised as far back as 2022 when the chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Julian Knight MP, questioned the commission on the matter.

Knight at the time stated that the affordability checks were of “great public interest” claiming the public right to access the results.

Subsequent to this criticism the commission explained that the results of the consultations were to be published on the website in due course. 

It was expressed that “the necessary preparation and administration involved in publishing the information” and that the regulator had claimed that “there is no outstanding public interest in releasing this information prior to its intended publication”.

Davies’ criticisms

In response to the UKGC’s statements on their failure to publish the result, Davies expressed surprise, claiming:

“This is a completely unacceptable position for a regulator to take when it is making decisions which will impact on the lives of a huge number of people.”

He would go on to express a desire for the Information Commissioner to force the commission to immediately publish the responses collected in 2021.

This news comes in lieu of the current financial risk checks being conducted by both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the UKGC again to support the recently published gambling whitepaper.

When approached regarding Davies’ criticisms, the UKGC gave this statement:

“The commission conducted an earlier consultation and call for evidence exercise and intends to publish the results of that alongside our current consultation on the topic of financial risk.” 

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