Bacta President John Bollom and Executive Director George McGregor (Government Relations) will be heading to Liverpool to attend Labour’s first Annual Conference as the sitting government since 2009.

The Conference which will celebrate Labour’s landslide majority and look ahead to the first parliament as the governing party, runs from Sunday 22 – Wednesday 25 September and is one of the largest political gatherings in Europe, with last year’s event attracting over 17,000 attendees.

It will be a case of ‘completing the job’ with Bacta taking the opportunity to press-home the imperative of gaining the earliest possible implementation of the land-based gambling reforms that were recommended in the White Paper as well as stressing the industry’s ability to partner with the government on meeting its economic growth agenda.

George  McGregor said: “The Labour Party Conference represents a valuable opportunity for Bacta to engage with both the returning and the large number of newly elected Labour MPs. 

“The fact is that every MP present will have a tangible reference point to our industry within his/her constituency whether that’s an AGC, a Pub, Bingo Hall, Motorway Service Area, FEC, and in some cases a high profile destination venue such as a Pier, Holiday Centre or Theme Park.”

He added: “Our message is let’s get the White Paper reforms on to the statute book, create an environment in which Bacta members can continue to support high street and coastal communities and as a result play a full and active role in helping to grow the economy and kick-start the recovery.”

In addition to lobbying the government to implement the White Paper recommendations on gambling reform Bacta’s list of strategic objectives includes the reintroduction of a regular mechanism to review stake and prize levels and the modernisation of technical standards.

Bacta will also be underlining the status of the industry’s economic contributions which in research conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) were calculated to comprise £1.9bn to UK Gross Domestic Product, £270m in Machine Game Duty and Machine VAT as well as supporting the employment of  34,000 people.

Following the Labour Party Conference Bacta will be taking its arguments to The Conservative Party Conference which is being held at the ICC Birmingham 29th September – 2nd October.