Richard Bradley, partner at gambling licensing law firm Poppleston Allen, shares how new proposals in Parliament may affect licensed premises
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The ‘aim to permit’ principle may be under threat
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Switching the burden of proof from “if nothing wrong with the application, it should in theory be approved” to “the application can be rejected if on the licensing authority’s opinion the grant may not uphold the licensing objectives”
Members of the House of Lords have begun their further examination of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, (EDCE) which is in report stage and will be discussed again today, with report stage concluding 13 April 2026.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage, a Labour Life Peer in the House of Lords, has tabled an amendment to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill which proposes to introduce Gambling Impact Assessments by inserting two new sections to the Gambling Act 2005 (‘the Act’).
If the amendment is passed and these sections are inserted into the Act, this will allow a licensing authority to publish a Gambling Impact Assessment (GIA) where the authority considers the granting of any relevant licence to premises in their area is not likely to be reasonably consistent with one or more of the licensing objectives because:
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The cumulative impact of relevant licences in respect of premises in the affected part(s) or
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Other reasons which relate to that licensing objective, or those licensing objectives, and to the affected part(s).
A relevant licence has been defined as being:
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a bingo premises licence
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adult gaming centre premises licence
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family entertainment centre premises licence or
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a betting premises licence.
An authority would also be able to limit the numbers of licences in an area.
As part of any published assessment, the authority must set out evidence for how they have come to the opinion that the grant of any relevant licence would not be reasonably consistent with the objectives set out above.
Authorities will also be required to review any published GIA from time to time, and should the authority take the view that the assessment should be revised or withdrawn, they must publish any revision.
Where an application is submitted for a relevant licence and a GIA has been published and the authority has included in its Statement of Gambling Principles that there will be a presumption to refuse applications for relevant licences, then it will be deemed lawful for the authority to refuse such application solely on the ground that it falls within the scope of the GIA.
That being said, the amendment does confirm that refusing an application will be unlawful where the applicant asserts in the application that the grant would be reasonably consistent with the licensing objectives or objectives set out in the GIA and provides evidence that the grant would be reasonably consistent with the objectives.
Full details of the tabled amendment can be found here.
