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19 March 2026 - Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Commissioners

Minutes of the meeting of the Board of Commissioners, Thursday 19 March 2026.

10:00 Board room at Victoria Square House, Birmingham.

Commissioners:

  • Charles Counsell (Interim Chair)
  • Lloydette Bai-Marrow
  • Helen Dodds
  • Sheree Howard (absent from 12:30 to 14:45)
  • Helen Phillips (up to 15:30)
  • David Rossington.

Executive team:

  • Katharine Diamond
  • Sarah Gardner
  • Helen Gibson
  • Natasha Harris (up to 15:30)
  • Tim Miller
  • Alistair Quigley
  • John Tanner.

In attendance:

  • REDACTED
  • Sarah Fox, Deputy Director, Gambling and Lotteries, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (items 6 to 11 only)
  • REDACTED.

Apologies:

  • Claudia Mortimore
  • Andrew Rhodes.

1. Private session for Commissioners and Secretariat

This session was not minuted.

2. Welcome, apologies and declarations of interest

The Interim Chair welcomed attendees to the meeting. He extended a particular warm welcome to the new Executive Director of Operations, and to the external Board Effectiveness Review (BER) project managers (observing the board meeting today as part of the BER work).

Apologies were noted.

There were no new declarations of interest.

3. Minutes, actions and forward look

The minutes of the board meeting held on 5 February 2026, were agreed as a true and accurate record of the meeting. REDACTED.

  1. REDACTED.
  2. REDACTED.

REDACTED.

It was noted that the schedule of delegations has been added to the Audit and Risk Committee agenda for its meeting on 25 March 2026.

REDACTED.

REDACTED.

REDACTED.

REDACTED.

REDACTED.

4. Chair’s report

Board noted the Chair’s report for information.

The Interim Chair highlighted key points:

  1. On the external BER, the Interim Chair outlined the scope of the work and the process to be followed. REDACTED.
    The afternoon session of the Board and Executive Team Away Day on 20 May 2026 will cover the main themes coming out of the BER.
  2. Board noted the CEO recruitment timeline.
  3. REDACTED.

Board were invited to ask questions and make comments:

  1. Regarding the delay on Chair recruitment and the imminent CEO recruitment, the Interim Chair will lead on the CEO recruitment process.
  2. REDACTED.
  3. Fireside chats with the Gambling Commission will take place prior to interviews. These are likely to be conducted by the Acting CEO and the Interim Chair.
  4. REDACTED.
  5. REDACTED.

5. CEO’s report

Board noted the report for information.

The Acting CEO highlighted key points:

  1. The Acting CEO had a positive, high level, introductory meeting with the recently appointed DCMS Director General. The meeting also covered the topic of fees.
  2. The Acting CEO received her official Accounting Officer (AO) letter last week. The Acting CEO will also be carrying out some refresher AO training.

REDACTED.

Board were invited to ask questions and make comments:

  1. On new starters in the Commission’s Legal Team, the team will now be up to strength based on current activity. There is ongoing work to understand resourcing for Illegal Markets work.
  2. In terms of Executive Team capacity, Board felt the external BER was timely and will hopefully draw out some themes on this point.

6. DCMS ‘State of the Nation’ update

The Interim Chair introduced the Deputy Director, Gambling and Lotteries, DCMS, to attendees and thanked her for attending the board meeting today.

Board received an update:

REDACTED.

Board were invited to ask questions and make comments:

  1. On the appointment of a new Chair, once DCMS has a shortlist of candidates, they will ask the Commission to be involved and to have fireside chats as has been done in the past. These will be done by the Interim Chair and Acting CEO. REDACTED.
  2. REDACTED.
  3. On fees, the closing date of the consultation is the end of March 2026. REDACTED.

7. REDACTED

8. REDACTED

9. REDACTED

10. REDACTED

11. Financial Risk Pilot (FRP) Findings and Analysis

Board noted the paper for discussion.

Board received an update:

REDACTED.

Board were invited to ask questions and make comments:

REDACTED.

REDACTED.

12. Finance and Performance Reports

Board noted the Finance paper for information and the Operational Performance Report for discussion.

Board received an update on the Finance report:

  1. To flag, the financial report is based on the period 10 financial position, January 2026, due to timing of papers and Board, so numbers have moved since the time of reporting.
  2. REDACTED.
  3. REDACTED.
  4. REDACTED.

Board received an update on the Operational Performance Report:

  1. The operational performance report tabled today, as with the Finance report, covers the period to the end of January 2026 and includes the Fourth National Lottery (4NL) dashboard.
  2. REDACTED.
  3. There is a resource impact for Case Management System (CMS) implementation in compliance.
  4. Ops performance remains consistent with a people turnover of around 11 percent.

Board were invited to ask questions and make comments:

  1. The turnover of Commission colleagues seems to be increasing however, whilst the turnover has grown slightly, it could be due to managers starting to tackle performance and sickness issues and becoming more involved in decisions around those issues. People Services do not have any concern at this stage on turnover. Board would welcome information on what the relevant benchmark is for turnover in the Civil Service or wider Public Service.
  2. There has been less investment in Learning and Development in recent months due to the fees review.
  3. On sickness absence, it would be helpful to have the sickness percentage rate reported in future reports.
  4. On the increase in mental health issues and related disciplinary cases, Board noted that these issues can occur concurrently or as a result of action. In addition, it was reflected that people are more comfortable now in reporting mental health concerns at work, which could be another factor to the increase in numbers.

REDACTED.

REDACTED.

REDACTED.

13. Business Plan and Budget 2026 to 2027

Board noted the papers.

Board received an update on the Budget 2026 to 2027:

REDACTED.

REDACTED.

On the statutory levy, the Commission has made all the payments to the commissioning bodies today. REDACTED.

The statutory levy continues to raise new issues on the impact of fees and the comparisons between how the fees and the levy will be calculated.

Board asked questions and/or made comments:

  1. REDACTED.
  2. REDACTED.
  3. There may be additional budget decisions for Executive Committee whilst the outcome of the fees consultation is awaited. REDACTED.
  4. The budget presented is based on the best information that the Commission currently holds and is a well-constructed budget in the circumstances. REDACTED.
  5. REDACTED.

DECISION: Budget: Board:

  • REDACTED
  • noted the budget plans for National Lottery, Statutory Levy and Illegal Markets.

Business plan 2026 to 2027

Board noted the papers.

Board received an update:

  1. The business plan as set out today is high level with more detail in areas where the Commission has more certainty over funding (for example Statutory Levy and HM Treasury funding for Illegal Markets). REDACTED.
  2. REDACTED.

The Board asked questions and/or made comments:

REDACTED.

DECISION: Business Plan: Board:

  • agreed the business plan document in principle subject to detailed comments by correspondence
  • delegated sign off of the business plan to the Acting CEO and Finance Director.

14. Annual Risk Appetite Review

The Interim Chair advised Executive Committee that in the Private Session this morning, Board and the Acting CEO had agreed to take this item off the agenda for today’s meeting. The paper will go to the Audit and Risk Committee for discussion first and will then come back to Board at the same time as the revised budget. All attendees were content with this proposal.

15. REDACTED

16. Committee Assurance reports – Audit and Risk Committee (ARC)

Board noted the paper for assurance.

Board received an update:

  1. REDACTED.
  2. In terms of commencing next year’s audit plan, ARC will know more about that from Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) post the 25 March 2026 meeting.
  3. On the Lessons Learned Review on the Ops Implementation Programme, this will be discussed ahead of the 25 March 2026 ARC meeting and that discussion will be used to start to draft the management response to that report. A revised report will be circulated to Board in due course.

Board received a verbal update on the last Remuneration and Nominations Committee (RNC) meeting held on 9 March 2026:

  1. RNC were grateful for the outgoing CEO giving his feedback on the performance of Executive Team members (he attended for this item only).
  2. RNC were also grateful for David Rossington standing in for Claudia Mortimore at the meeting.
  3. REDACTED.
  4. REDACTED.
  5. REDACTED.
  6. RNC carried out a helpful exercise on a review of the Committee’s self-assessment of effectives, and noted challenges to focus on, for example, attendance at meetings.

Board did not have any questions or comments.

17. Any other business and review of the meeting

Attendees shared their views on today’s meeting. REDACTED.

18. Below the line items

Illegal Markets update – the report was noted. Paper will come to Board in May to set out scope and structure on how to tackle the Illegal Markets work.

Procurement report – the report was noted.

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