To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the report on gambling commissioned by the European Commission, in so far as it covers the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.

As part of an examination of the gambling sector in the context of the single market, a purely factual report entitled, "Gambling in the Single Market—A study of the current legal and market situation", was published by the European Commission in July. We have drawn to the Commission's attention a number of factual inaccuracies in relation to the United Kingdom. In particular, we have pointed out that net consumer spend—estimated at about £3,300 million for the United Kingdom in 1989–90—provides a better guide to gambling expenditure than estimates of the total amount staked which appear in the report. On that basis, the EC gambling industry is much smaller than the report claimed.