Approval of test houses Application form guidance notes Introduction This guidance has been written to help you complete the application form GCTHA and the annex GCTHA/AA. Please read this document carefully before you attempt to answer any questions. Should an incomplete form be submitted to the Commission (ie you fail to provide compulsory information) this will result in your application being delayed and may result in your application being refused. If you submit a form with incorrect information, your application will still be processed but is more likely to be rejected. If you misrepresent, or fail to reveal information that you are asked to provide, unless you have a reasonable excuse, you will have committed an offence under section 342 of the Gambling Act 2005 ( The Act ). Please note that, after receipt of your completed form, the Commission may still need to contact you for any further information we deem necessary in order to determine your application, for example if information you provide is unclear. If there is not enough space on the form to answer questions, please continue on a separate sheet making sure that you refer to the section and question number and that you date and sign each sheet. Who should complete this form? The Commission s approval of test houses will be a two stage process (although the stages can run concurrently), and is dependent on the following: Stage 1 - The Commission s assessment that the test house is suitable (considering probity of organisation and individuals) and that it is independent; and Stage 2 - That accreditation is obtained from UKAS or an equivalent international organisation for BS EN ISO 17025 (General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories), plus the additional features (skills, capabilities, capacity) demanded by the Commission s technical standards. This form will need to be completed by those bodies who wish to undertake testing of machines and remote systems to Gambling Commission technical standards. Test houses will not be given formal approval until they have successfully completed both stages of the approval process. Applicants will need to apply separately to UKAS or their equivalent accreditation body to be technically accredited and complete Stage 2 of the approval process. Application forms can be found at www.ukas.com. Accreditation by UKAS or the equivalent accreditation body overseas does not give automatic entitlement for test houses to test to Gambling Commission standards.
Gambling operators with a licence from the Commission will be required to ensure that they comply with the Commission s technical standards and with requirements set by the Commission relating to the timing and procedures for testing. If you do not currently have accreditation for BS EN ISO 17025 but have alternative quality standards and are prepared to obtain the necessary accreditation please contact the Commission to discuss your application further on 0121 230 6666 or via e-mail info@gamblingcommission.gov.uk How your application will be assessed The application form has been designed to obtain the information the Commission needs to determine whether you meet the criteria for test house approval. Under the Gambling Act 2005, the Commission may make arrangements with any person for the administration of tests of compliance with the standards it sets relating to gaming machines and to remote gambling systems. These powers are set out in s96.4(c) of the Act for gaming machines and s97.1(c) for software. The Commission has decided to appoint test houses to carry out this function on its behalf. In appointing test houses, the Commission will have regard to the licensing objectives as set out in Section 22 of the Act. Integrity checks are an integral part of pursuing those objectives. When the Commission assesses your application we will take several factors into consideration, including: integrity by this, the Commission generally means your honesty competence whether you have the knowledge, skills and experience to carry out the function or role financial circumstances whether you might, by reason of financial pressures, present a risk to the function or role you are approved to carry out technical competence this will be assessed by the relevant accreditation body (for example, UKAS in the UK). In addition to the information you supply on the application form the Commission will also be taking into account information from other sources (eg government departments and overseas regulators). All information provided in connection with this application will be treated in confidence by the Commission and processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, but it may be disclosed to government departments or agencies, local authorities and other bodies where it is necessary to do so in order to carry out our functions and where we are legally required or permitted to do so. Appeals If you are dissatisfied with the approval decision made by the Commission, then you may make a formal complaint which will be dealt with through the Commission s general complaints procedure. Details of this procedure can be found on the Commission s website.
Section 1. Contact Person This is an administrative section and will have no bearing on whether approval is given. Q1. The nominated person will be the designated contact for all correspondence relating to the entity s application. Please provide all telephone contact numbers where possible. Section 2. Entity Identity Section 2 provides us with details of the person/entity applying for approval. It includes name, contact details and trading structure. Q2. If the entity is registered with a statutory or governing body, its registered name should be entered here. If the entity is not a registered entity, (eg an individual or partnership) please use the name which corresponds to either a passport or trading name. Q2a. Please provide your entity s website address in order that the Commission can find out more about the entity including office locations, services provided etc Q3. Please enter the entity s trading name if it is different to the answer provided in question 2. Q4. If the entity or individual has been registered under a different name (i.e. change of company name, previous name or aliases), you should answer YES. Please cross (X) only one box. Q4a. If you answered YES to Question 4, please provide details of all previous names and the dates when those names were used. Q5. Please indicate the type of entity which best reflects its trading structure. Q6. If the entity is a registered organisation/business please complete this question. Q7. If the entity does not have a registered address or has a head office which is different from its registered address, please complete this question. Section 3. Relevant permits, licences or accreditations Q8. The Commission is interested in understanding what relevant accreditations or permits you may already hold or where you have been approved by other gambling regulators to carry out testing. Relevant accreditations may include BS EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 STANDARD General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, BS EN ISO/IEC 17020:2004 STANDARD General requirements for the operation of various types of bodies performing inspection. If you are an approved test house for another gambling regulator please provide details of your approval (name of regulator, date of approval, scope of approval, etc). Q9. The Commission requires you to indicate the type(s) of approval you are applying for. In response to this question please give details of the areas for which you are seeking approval: Gaming Machines Category A Category B1 Category B2 Category B3 Category B4 Category C random Category C compensated Category D random Category D compensated Server networked and downloadable gaming machines Wireless gaming machine systems Cashless gaming machine payment systems Linked progressive gaming machines
Other Remote gambling systems Bingo and Casino Equipment Section 4. Management, Owner and Organisational details In Section 4, the Commission requires you to provide information relating to the entity s managers, owners and organisation (if applicable). The information captured in this section will be cross-checked against various external organisations to assess suitability for being granted approval. Q10. Please list the details of all premises which you own or lease (or have permission from the owner to occupy) from which you will deliver or administer your services. Q11. If this section is not fully completed, the Commission will not be able to process the application. Details are required of all individuals involved in the ownership, or responsible for the ongoing operation of the organisation or business. In the case of ownership all those with at least three per cent equity should be listed. Note: You must attach a personal declaration for every unlicensed individual listed below with the exception of shareholders with less than 10% equity, using the form included at Annex A. This will include Owners, Directors and Partners and those who occupy any specified position which under the terms of their appointment require them to take or share responsibility for the conduct of a person who performs an operational function in connection with the delivery of testing services, or whose position requires them to facilitate or ensure compliance with relevant standards. Major investor, owner, Partner Overall strategy and delivery of testing operations (typically CEO/MD/executive chairman plus COO or operations director) Financial planning, control and budgeting (typically FD) Technical Director Compliance Director Senior manager responsible for Quality Control arrangements. The Commission will work with the industry to identify the posts which, in the Commission s judgement, correspond to the functions described above, in the event that applicants are unsure. Q12. You need to provide details of all corporate shareholders/trust or other organisations who own three percent or more of the business and/or are responsible for or may influence the ongoing operation of the individual entity/organisation/business making this application. Please provide full details as requested including the date of incorporation, the date on which the entity/organisation became involved with the applicant, percentage of equity/share held and give details of a person that the Commission can contact in the entity/organisation if we require any additional information. Where the investor is a trust, you must provide details of beneficiaries of the trust structure as the Commission may need to request further details about the structure. Where there are more than 10 investors please provide details on a continuation sheet. Q13. Please complete carefully. For previous investigations, only include those within the last five years. Please provide the date the investigation commenced (if known); the investigating body; any reference numbers that are known; details of the country where the investigation is taking place; and, if known, the name of the investigating officer and any contact details for this person that you might have. The Commission will undertake investigations with a large number of statutory, regulatory and governmental bodies both in the UK and abroad to identify any
licences, certificates or permits which have been declined, revoked or suspended. If, during the process of our assessment, the Commission identifies relevant information which has been omitted, there is a real risk that you will be refused approval. Please also include any ongoing investigations. Q14. Please provide the date of conviction/action, details of any penalties imposed, and where the offence took place. Where an individual has been charged with the offence as opposed to the entity (operator) please enter the name of the individual in the blank box. Include details of cautions, reprimands or final warnings as well as convictions. Please provide the name of the person or entity charged with the offence in the box headed please specify. The Commission undertakes to discuss any matter revealed in a Disclosure with the person seeking the licence before making a decision. Should an application be refused, all applicants are entitled to a review through the Commission s complaints procedure. Section 5. Financial Information Q15. The Commission needs to understand the scale of your business but will do so from information that can be obtained from your website. Please provide us with your latest set of accounts, audited where relevant. Those who are listed or part of a listed group must provide us with the last set of their annual accounts for both the subsidiary and consolidated group and interim accounts since then. We are aware that these companies are complex and we will discuss with each one separately how they can provide us with the relevant information. Please provide a copy of your professional indemnity insurance, ensuring that it gives details of the insurance firm providing cover, the amount covered and the date of expiry of any cover. Professional indemnity insurance protects your business against compensation sought by a client if you have made mistakes or are found to have been negligent. Professional indemnity insurance will also cover any legal costs. Most professionals carry professional indemnity cover. The Commission expects all test houses to have professional indemnity insurance as this will give some degree of protection to both the test house and the entity in the event that work is found to be negligent. Declaration The Commission must be satisfied that the business has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future, and applicants must provide a declaration to this effect. The declaration must be signed by the following: - in the case of private companies by at least two Directors, normally the Chief Executive and the Finance Director or in the absence of the Finance Director, the Company Secretary; - in the case of partnerships by all partners; - in the case of sole proprietors by the owner of the business. If you wish to use a different means to provide the Commission with this assurance then please contact us. Section 6. Information on policy Q16. Test houses will ensure that the gaming machines and remote systems entering the UK market comply with the Commission s technical standards. A test house will be employed by the operator to undertake testing and give an opinion on the suitability of machines/remote systems. It is therefore important to ensure that test houses and their staff are independent of those operators for which they work in order to mitigate the risk of fraud or corruption. In this regard, the Commission is seeking to understand your procedures for maintaining your independence and dealing with conflicts of interest. You may attach the relevant policies or summarise the key elements, including engagement acceptance procedures; consideration of conflicts of interest at recruitment stage; any restrictions placed on staff and their spouses regarding shareholdings, etc. Q17. The Commission expects that test houses will have arrangements in place to ensure compliance with independence policies. Please give details of the arrangements you have in
place to gain assurance that all staff are complying with your key policies. These arrangements could include an annual declaration from all staff, sign off procedures for engagement acceptance, reviews by independent auditors, etc. Section 7. Other Information Q18. If there is anything else that the Commission could reasonably expect you to inform us of or anything else you would like to add in support of your application, please enter details here. Section 8. Declaration The declaration must be signed in all cases: a. if the applicant is an individual, by that individual; b. if the application is made on behalf of a partnership, by all individuals who are partners; c. if the applicant is a company, by both the company secretary and a director (who is not also the secretary of the company); d. in any other case, by a duly authorised officer of the applicant. Freedom of Information Act 2000 Any information or material sent to the Commission and which we record may be subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Commission s policy on release of information is available on request or by reference to the Commission website at www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk. Whilst the Commission recognises that the information it requests and receives may contain commercially sensitive information or personal data, the Commission will treat all such information as confidential and will only disclose that information to people outside the Commission where it is necessary to do so in order to carry out our functions or where we are required by law to disclose the information. As a public authority, the Commission must comply with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and must consider requests for information made under the Act on a case by case basis. However, the Commission would not normally expect that the disclosure of commercially sensitive information to a potential competitor would be in the public interest. All information provided in connection with this application will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, but it may be disclosed to government departments, or agencies, local authorities and other bodies where it is necessary to do so in order to carry out the functions of the Commission and where it is legally required or permitted to do so. Section 9. Form Enclosures Please check that you have included with your application form: A copy of relevant accreditation / permits held (refer to question 9). Continuation pages (where applicable). A copy of your latest set of accounts. Copies of professional indemnity insurance. Copies of independence policy documents. Information sharing letter. Individual personal declaration (Annex A). Annex A
Please arrange completion of a personal declaration pro-forma for each individual in answer to question 11 of the application form. Failure to provide personal declarations in conjunction with the application WILL delay determination of the application. In the notes below you means the relevant individual, not the applicant for approval. Section 1. Personal identity A1. Please provide your title. A2. Please provide all your forenames. A3. Please provide your surname. A4. Please cross (X) appropriate box. A5. Please cross (X) only one box. A6. Please provide details of any other names, such as previous names, adoptive names and names changes by deed poll. Please provide details of the dates when you were known by these other names. Please complete dates in the DD/MM/YYYY format. A7. Please provide your date of birth in the DD/MM/YYYY format. A8. Please provide an identifying number. For UK residents this will be a national insurance number. For applicants outside the UK please provide ID card number, tax number, or social security number. A9. Please provide details of your passport, including the country of issue and date of issue. If you have dual nationality, please include details of both passports. A10. Please provide details of your current nationality. A11. Please provide your driving licence number and include the date of issue. A12. Country of issue of driving licence. A13. Please give details of your personal phone number and a contact number where you can be contacted during the day. You must provide a personal phone number or your application will not be processed. A14. Please provide your e-mail address if you have one. A15. Please complete the details of your place of birth including the country and your nationality at birth if different. A16. Please complete your current home address including the full postcode and country. A17. Please provide details of any current other (ie second homes) home addresses and all the addresses that you have lived at in the last five years. Under the occupancy status please state if you were the owner, joint owner, renting, living with parents or other. A18. Please provide details of your spouse or civil partner including the full name, date of birth, previous name(s) if applicable and address. Please use the DD/MM/YYYY format for dates. Section 2. Suitability and Integrity A19. If you have ever been convicted of a criminal offence or accepted a police warning, caution or reprimand please give details in the table provided. Please include any offence committed abroad and state the country where this occurred. The Commission undertakes to discuss any matter revealed in a disclosure with the person concerned before recommending refusal of a licence. Should an application be refused, all applicants are entitled to review this decision through the Commission s complaints procedure. A20. This applies to non-gambling licences. Here you should declare any investigations by organisations such as HM Revenue and Customs, the Insolvency Service, the Department for Work and Pensions, or equivalent bodies abroad. A21. Please indicate whether you have ever been disqualified from acting as a company director. If you answer YES to this question please tell us: the name of the Company of which you were the director
the company registration number the reasons for your disqualification. If necessary please provide additional information or continue on a separate continuation sheet. A22. Please indicate whether you are currently the subject of a criminal investigation or a pending prosecution. This includes any government agencies or authorities abroad. If you answer YES to this question please provide details of the offence(s) involved including the date in DD/MM/YYYY format, where the offence occurred and the name and contact details of the investigating officer, if known. A23. Please tell us of any disciplinary action that has been taken against any of your accreditations/permits to work for other regulators in the last five years by placing a cross (X) in the appropriate box. Tell us when and where the licence was issued, the date any action was taken and the licence number if known. A24. Please indicate whether you currently work or have previously worked. Please tell us: your employer s name the dates you worked for them your job title/role. A25. Please indicate whether you have any qualifications or training from employers that is relevant to your responsibilities on the application. As part of this you should indicate any formal training you are scheduled to undertake in the next three months. A25 a/b/c/d. Please tell us: details of the type of qualification or training who provided/will be providing the training date training took/will take place include any training to be provided within the next three months. Section 3. Financial circumstances A26. Please cross (X) the relevant box and please cross (X) only one box. If you answered YES to this question please give details in the space provided. Please include as much detail as possible including the date of discharge (if applicable) in the DD/MM/YYYY format, the circumstances in which the bankruptcy occurred in and any agreement details and their dates. A27. Please cross (X) the relevant box and please cross (X) only one box. If you answered YES to this question please give details in the space provided. Please include as much detail as possible including the date of discharge (if applicable) in the DD/MM/YYYY format, the circumstances in which the bankruptcy occurred and any agreement details and their dates. A28. Please cross (X) the relevant box and please cross (X) only one box. Please note this includes County Court Judgements. A29. Non Executive Directors who are Chairman of Board sub committees such as the Audit Committee are required to complete this section. Other Non Executive Directors are not required to do so. You can group the assets into types eg all shares or all property or all land and then give us estimates for that type. Please provide details of your total assets and liabilities. Separately list all those types with a value of over 100,000, giving an estimated value if the true value is not known. Assets can include: cash (in hand, current and savings accounts); stocks and shares; business investments; property. Liabilities can include: overdraft and loans; credit card debts; mortgage (s). An example of completion is as follows Statements of assets Statement of liabilities Total 10,000 200,000 Mortgage balance 120,000 A30. Please
provide details of any relationship (ie director, shareholder, employee) that you and your spouse or partner has with a gambling operator. Freedom of Information Act 2000 Any information or material sent to the Commission and which we record may be subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The Commission s policy on release of information is available on request or by reference to the Commission website at www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk. The Commission will treat all such information as confidential and will only disclose that information to people outside the Commission where it is necessary to do so in order to carry out our functions or where we are required by law to disclose the information. As a public authority the Commission must comply with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and must consider requests for information made under the Act on a case-by-case basis. However, the Commission would not normally expect that disclosure of commercially sensitive information to a potential competitor would be in the public interest. Gambling Commission March 2007 Keeping gambling fair and safe for all For further information or to register your interest in the Commission please visit our website at: www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk Copies of this document are available in alternative formats on request. Gambling Commission Victoria Square House Victoria Square Birmingham B2 4BP T 0121 230 6666 F 0121 230 6720 E info@gamblingcommission.gov.uk