Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if Public Health England's gambling-related harms evidence review will include consideration of the potential merits of (a) safety testing and (b) classification of industrialised gambling products.

Public Health England’s (PHE’s) gambling-related harms evidence review will examine the prevalence, determinants and harms associated with gambling, and the social and economic burden of gambling-related harms.

The review is considering a range of available evidence on the harms and risk factors of gambling in England. Policies and interventions are not in scope, so the potential merits of safety testing and classification of industrialised gambling products will not be considered. However, as the review is ongoing, PHE cannot currently say if evidence of harms associated with these topics will be included in the final report.

The review is due to be published in spring 2020. More information on the scope of the review, including the aims and objectives and methods used, can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gambling-related-harms-evidence-review