Gambling Minister Says the Aim to Permit Consultation Will Start Very Shortly, but Gives No Date

At her first policy panel as gambling minister, Vicky Foxcroft told a Labour conference audience that the consultation on scrapping the Gambling Act's "aim to permit" rule is coming "very shortly". She did not say when, or what will replace a principle that has governed every betting shop and arcade licence decision since 2007.

• Gambling minister Vicky Foxcroft MP said a consultation on revoking the "aim to permit" principle in section 153 of the Gambling Act 2005 will be "starting very shortly", but gave no timeline, at her first Labour conference panel in the role on 28 September
• She said bingo licensing will be updated to ensure "that it is bingo that is taking place", after Alex Ballinger MP warned some halls "have become adult gaming centres by the back door"
• Dawn Butler MP called the gambling impact assessments enacted in April "very weak"; Bacta president Joseph Cullis said his members had welcomed them
• Downing Street announced the plan on 11 August in a high streets package that also requires planning permission for new adult gaming centres from 2027
• The Betting and Gaming Council says betting shop numbers have fallen by over a third since 2019, and Bacta says adult gaming centres fell from 1,610 to 1,415 between 2015 and 2025

The Minister's First Answer on Aim to Permit Is "Very Shortly"

Britain's gambling minister has given her first indication of when the government will move on aim to permit. Speaking on a panel titled "What Next for Gambling Reform: Time for a New Act?", held by the think tank More in Common with the Coalition to End Gambling Advertising (CEGA) at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Monday 28 September, Vicky Foxcroft said the consultation on revoking the principle would be "starting very shortly", according to NEXT.io's report of the event. She was not in a position to give a timeline. NEXT.io reported that the close on 9 September of the consultation on banning unlicensed operators from sponsoring sports clubs appears to have cleared the way.

Foxcroft, MP for Lewisham North, was appointed a parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on 22 July, according to her government profile, and took on the gambling brief in August, succeeding Baroness Twycross. NEXT.io described a cautious debut, thin on policy detail. She said she wanted to "make sure we follow the evidence", and that the government plans to update bingo licensing so as to ensure "that it is bingo that is taking place". Alex Ballinger, the Labour MP who was the first to call publicly for a new gambling act, told the room some bingo halls "have become adult gaming centres by the back door".

Will Prochaska, director of CEGA, reminded her of the House of Lords Liaison Committee's call for a comprehensive gambling advertising ban and told her "the idea that there's not enough evidence is an industry construct".

Butler Wants the New Council Powers Scrapped Before They Start

The sharpest exchange was about powers Parliament has only just given councils. Section 87 of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 29 April, lets a licensing authority publish a gambling impact assessment stating, on published evidence, that further betting, bingo, adult gaming centre or family entertainment centre licences in a defined area are unlikely to be consistent with the licensing objectives because of cumulative impact. The authority may then reject an application solely because it falls within the assessment, unless the applicant shows the licence would be reasonably consistent with those objectives. Section 87 was not brought into force at Royal Assent, and legislation.gov.uk still lists the changes as not yet applied.

Butler told the panel the assessments were "very weak" and that she would be happy for them "to be scrapped before they even start", arguing that the minister should focus on aim to permit instead, NEXT.io reported. Joseph Cullis, president of Bacta, the trade body for arcades and adult gaming centres, was invited by Noyes to speak from the floor after criticism that the panel featured only reform advocates. He said the assessments would have been a middle ground between inaction and removing aim to permit: "We weren't against that. We welcomed that." Earlier that day Foxcroft visited Grosvenor Casino Liverpool with Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) chief executive Grainne Hurst, according to the BGC.

What Section 153 Says, and Who Has Asked for It to Go

Section 153 requires a licensing authority to "aim to permit the use of premises for gambling" in so far as it thinks this is in accordance with the Gambling Commission's codes and guidance, reasonably consistent with the licensing objectives, and in accordance with its own statement of licensing policy. Subsection (2) bars it from considering expected demand. The 2023 white paper recorded that most licensing authorities cited aim to permit as a problem and many wanted it removed, but the then government chose cumulative impact assessments instead.

The Local Government Association (LGA) supported those assessments, but told peers in March that it wanted the requirement to "aim to permit" removed entirely. Labour's 2024 manifesto promised to "reform gambling regulation, strengthening protections" without mentioning it. The commitment came on 11 August, when Downing Street said the government "intends to revoke the Gambling Act's outdated 'Aim to Permit' rule", which it said restricts councils' ability to refuse new betting shops and "24-hour slot machine shops". It gave no consultation date. The BGC replied that the suggestion betting shops are spreading unchecked "is simply wrong", citing around 3,000 closures since 2019.

Removing Aim to Permit Changes the Default, and Arcades Feel It Most

Councils can already refuse a premises licence that is not reasonably consistent with the licensing objectives. What section 153 does is set the starting point at yes, so a refusal has to be justified against the objectives, the codes and the council's own policy. Remove it and the starting point becomes open, which is what the LGA has asked for. Betting shops have needed planning permission in England since 2015, so councils already have one gate. Adult gaming centres, which can still open in premises approved for shops or cafes, would face a licensing gate and a planning gate at once from 2027. The open questions are whether the demand bar in subsection (2) also goes, and whether the Commission's own aim to permit duty in section 22 is in scope. Neither the August announcement nor the minister has answered.

The Impact Assessments Could Be Superseded Before Any Council Uses Them

Gambling impact assessments are evidence-led and area-specific, and they give the applicant a route to rebut. That is precisely why Bacta can call them a middle ground and Butler can call them weak. If aim to permit goes, an authority would no longer need an assessment to refuse, and the evidence discipline that comes with one would become optional. The government has not said whether it will commence section 87 before the consultation concludes. Councils and operators are owed an answer on whether the tool Parliament passed in April will ever be used.

"Very Shortly" Is a Timetable Only in the Absence of a Bill

Revoking a section of the Gambling Act would ordinarily need primary legislation, and nothing published so far names a vehicle. A consultation can open within weeks, but the operative change depends on parliamentary time the government has not allocated. The trade bodies' point, that shop and arcade numbers are falling, is about the national count. The government's case, built on clustering in places like Harlesden, where it counts 10 betting shops within a 10-minute walk, is about specific streets. The consultation will need evidence that reconciles the two.

Foxcroft has now committed to a direction on the record. The industry needs a date and a bill, and on 28 September it got neither.