Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he and officials in his Department have had with their counterparts in other Departments on a national gambling strategy.

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and his officials have had no discussions with other Government departments on the subject of a national gambling strategy.

The Department has not made an assessment of the effects of gambling on mental health. We do not centrally hold information on the amount spent on counselling for people with a gambling addiction in the last 12 months.

This Government has invested over £400 million in the Improving Access to Psychological Therapy programme over the spending review period to make a choice of psychological therapies available for those who need them in all parts of England. This includes people who experience mental ill health as a result of an addiction to gambling.

Achieving Better Access to Mental Health Services by 2020, published in October 2014, articulates our ambition and the immediate actions we are taking to achieve better access and waiting times in mental health services. It includes the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies commitment of treatment within six weeks for 75% of people with 95% of people being treated within 18 weeks.