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Finance Bill

Amendment 9 is in my name and that of my colleagues. The case for amendment 14 has been put very effectively, and it gets to the real nub of the issue. If it is pressed to a Division, my party will support it. Amendment 15, tabled by the Conservatives, has also been explained concisely but effectively by the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Hands), and we would support it too. Amendment 9 is much broader and it may not be necessary to press it, but it is helpful to have the opportunity to contribute to a debate that justifiably arouses strong feelings in my constituents and those of every other right hon. and hon. Member. It is worth briefly touching on the history of our deliberations. Bingo used to be subject to double taxation, which cost the industry some £85 million a year, because VAT was payable at 17.5 per cent. and gross profits tax at 15 per cent. Last year, I tabled a new clause to the Finance Bill to remove that double taxation and another to require the Government to report on the negative impact that double taxation was having on bingo. I am pleased that that point has been taken to heart by the Government and that the anomaly of bingo being subject to double taxation when other forms of gambling were not has been resolved. However, as the hon. Member for Barnsley, Central (Mr. Illsley) said, the problem is that while the Government have made a concession to the bingo industry with one hand, they have taken it back with the other. The Treasury estimates that the cost will be £50 million in 2009-10 and £55 million in 2011-12, but we know that those figures are heavily disputed. Clause 20 would increase the rate of bingo duty from 15 per cent. to 22 per cent. and the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Stewart Hosie) drew effective comparisons between bingo in a club being taxed at 22 per cent. and bingo online or in a casino being taxed at 15 per cent. Sports betting online and in a betting shop is taxed at 15 per cent., as are the football pools. There is a clear anomaly. When the bingo companies won their campaign and double taxation ended, they thought that they would be treated on the same footing as other forms of betting and did not expect that concession to be offset with an increase in the gambling tax that they were required to pay. Mecca, which is the organisation that I suspect most people will be familiar with, generates about £150 million of profit a year. It will pay £10 million more because of this increase than would have been the case. Let me briefly explain the impact that that will have on individual communities. I am told that each Mecca club pays an average of £900,000 a year in taxes, national insurance contributions and local rates and that 70 per cent. of Mecca revenues come from interval bingo, which was never subject to VAT in the first place. The punishment, in effect, is all the more profound in those circumstances. I am also told that 31 bingo clubs closed last year—I think that that number was mentioned by the hon. Member for Dundee, East—so the effect is real, with an impact on the type of people who particularly enjoy bingo. People of all backgrounds enjoy bingo, but that enjoyment is particularly concentrated among some groups of people. For example, the point was made that women in particular participate in bingo much more than they participate in other forms of gambling. There are people within the communities that we represent in the House who are particularly adversely affected by the treatment of bingo. Let me conclude by bringing this closer to home. In the two days since Monday—it is only Wednesday, although it feels like it might be later because of the amount of time we have spent on this Bill—I have received 109 letters from constituents who enjoy visiting Mecca bingo in Taunton up to three times a week and want to know why the Government are penalising club bingo. As the hon. Member for Northampton, South (Mr. Binley) pointed out, there are many social aspects that go with bingo. It is not just about the gambling itself, which takes a fairly modest and harmless form, but it is about the food and the social interaction, too. Constituents who have written to me on this subject include Edith Garland, Philip Horton, Kim Lee, Mike Hill, Margaret Grundy, Clare Povey, Sandra Loveridge and others. It is also notable how many married couples and families attend bingo together. That has been my experience when I have had the good fortune to visit Mecca bingo in Taunton. I have noticed how many people enjoy going with family members or with their spouses or friends. It is a regular social activity and one that they would be very upset to lose. Of course, bingo is also played in more informal settings across my constituency and across the country. I am pleased that the double taxation anomaly has been resolved, but I am upset on behalf of my constituents and the hundreds and thousands, if not millions, of people who enjoy bingo across the country that that has been offset by the increase in taxation that means that bingo is still penalised compared with other forms of gambling. My colleagues and I will support all three of the amendments if and when they are pressed to a Division to try to get the Government to think again on this very important matter.