Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Answer of 3 October 2022 to Question 51665 on Gambling: Addictions, for what reasons the Gambling Commission did not inform her Department that it considered Public Health England’s estimate of the number of suicides in England associated with problem gambling to be inaccurate.

The Gambling Commission is not required to produce an assessment of the work of other public bodies, and, unless formally requested to do so, it is not required to provide formal advice to the Department on its views regarding particular pieces of research or evidence. However, DCMS officials have regular discussions with the Commission on a range of issues relating to gambling regulation and the evidence on gambling, and this has included the Public Health England evidence report.