We are committed to supporting fair and transparent ticket pricing and tackling unacceptable behaviour in this market.

We have strengthened the law in relation to ticketing information requirements and have introduced a criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets online than is allowed. We also support the work of enforcement agencies in this area, such as the Competition and Markets Authority, National Trading Standards, and the advertising industry's own regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority.

The effectiveness of any legislation is dependent on people and organisations reporting suspected breaches to the relevant enforcement agencies, and we strongly encourage anyone with evidence of suspected ticketing fraud to report it to them.

The Gambling Commision is the independent regulator of the National Lottery and one of its statutory duties is to ensure that the interests of all players are protected, alongside ensuring the National Lottery is run with due propriety and that returns to good causes are maximised.

Monitoring is therefore an ongoing process and the Gambling Commission has undertaken an extensive amount of work in this area since 2010. As a result, it is not possible to collate and publish this information in its entirety.

The Gambling Commission publishes details of significant regulatory decisions and the rationale supporting those decisions on its website here:

https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/about-us/guide/licence-to-run-the-national-lottery.

In addition, wider data and research relating to the National Lottery, such as statistics around participation rates, can be found on the Gambling Commission’s website here:

https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/about-us/statistics-and-research.

The operator is subject to conditions set out within the Licence which specify that it must adopt, maintain and implement strategies to prevent underage and excessive play on the National Lottery and that such strategies shall first have been approved by the

Gambling Commission. Information on the more specific requirements of the operator in this respect can be found within Condition 7 of the Third Licence.

It has not been possible for the Gambling Commission to collate the requested information in the time available and confirm how many times a player protection strategy has been submitted to them for approval by the operator since the National Lottery was launched in 1994.

The Gambling Commission is the independent regulator of the National Lottery and has statutory duties to ensure that the interests of all players are protected, the Lottery is run with due propriety and that returns to good causes are maximised.

Details of significant regulatory decisions and the rationale supporting those decisions are published and can be found on the Gambling Commission’s website.

It has not been possible for the Gambling Commission to collate the requested information in the time available, and confirm how many times the National Lottery operator has submitted (a) a risk assessment, (b) an assessment by the game design governance group and (c) academic research to the Gambling Commission for (i) new game proposals and (ii) changes to existing games in each year since 1994; and the nature and outcome of each of those items.

Legislation was laid in December 2020 to increase the minimum age for all National Lottery products from 16 to 18 from 1 October 2021, in order to protect 16 and 17 year olds from the risk of gambling-related harm. This followed a public consultation in 2019, and more detailed information can be found in the consultation response and the accompanying impact assessment.

As anticipated in the consultation response, the National Lottery operator was able to implement the change more swiftly, with the new minimum age being implemented online and in retail on 22 April 2021.

Under the terms of the current National Lottery Licence the operator is required to implement player protection strategies to prevent underage and excessive play, which must be approved by the Gambling Commission, as regulator of the National Lottery.

For new game proposals and changes to existing games, the operator must provide the Gambling Commission with a range of information, such as assessments of the risks associated with certain product characteristics, a broader assessment by the operator’s game design governance group and relevant academic research.

In addition, the Gambling Commission conducts regular, detailed monitoring to identify risks to players, and where appropriate, undertakes strategic reviews of areas of the portfolio which are identified as higher (but not necessarily high) risk. For example, in 2020, the Gambling Commission commissioned research to better understand the players of Online Interactive Instant Win Games. The research found an association between players of Interactive Instant Win Games at the £10 price point and some problem gambling behaviours. As a result of this research, the operator suspended the sale of £10 Online Interactive Instant Win Games, which followed the removal of the £10 scratchcard in 2019.

In December 2020, the government increased the minimum age for the National Lottery as a precautionary measure to ensure the protection of young people. These changes were introduced for all games in April 2021, both for online and retail sales.

The table below shows sales data, broken down by draw-based games and instant win games, which includes both scratchcards and online instant win games. Sales are not publicly reported at a more granular level, therefore it has also not been possible to differentiate between sales on the website or the mobile application.

* 2009/10 covers a 14 month period due to the third Licence beginning on 1st February 2009.

The 2019/20 annual report of the current operator shows that digital sales accounted for 31.1% of total sales, up from 25.4% in 2018/19.

The BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the government and the government cannot intervene in the BBC’s day-to-day operations. The assessment of the effect on access to BBC services from technical changes is therefore a matter for the BBC.

The BBC addresses the issue of device compatibility with BBC iPlayer on its website. More information can be found here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/questions/supported-devices/use-mobile-tablet

The reference to Open Banking in the Computer Weekly article of 9 July 2020 was a reference to the Open Banking use case identified by the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) as part of their COVID repository. The repository is a database for novel use-cases of artificial intelligence and data in public, private and third sectors being used to counter and mitigate the effects of COVID-19 around the world. This innovative application of Open Banking was developed to the beta stage but was neither commissioned nor used by the Government.

The Government’s Data Ethics Framework and ‘Guide to Using AI in the Public Sector’ alongside other guidance available on GOV.UK, supports ethical and safe use of algorithms in the public sector. Building on the existing work on algorithmic and data ethics, the Government is now working to deliver more transparency on the use of algorithmic-assisted decision making within the public sector; and is working with leading organisations in the field of data and AI ethics on a proposed approach to algorithmic transparency.

However, Covid Credit is third party, proof-of-concept software. The government has not commissioned the software nor engaged with the developers, and is therefore unable to comment on its functionality.

The Department of Health and Social Care has been working closely with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to ensure that the development of test and trace systems, including customer, visitor and staff logs comply with data protection legislation. The ICO has published user-friendly guidance for organisations to ensure they notify individuals that their data is being collected; and that any information collected is limited to what is necessary, is not used for other purposes, is held securely and deleted after 21 days when no longer needed.

The guidance can be viewed on the ICO's website at: https://ico.org.uk/global/data-protection-and-coronavirus-information-hub/contact-tracing-protecting-customer-and-visitor-details/