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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many times the Gambling Act Review Evaluation Advisory Group has met since its establishment.

The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) is undertaking an evaluation of the Gambling Act Review on behalf of DCMS. The findings will be published on gov.uk later this year.

The Gambling Act Review Advisory Group provides objective, external advice to NatCen on how best to take the Gambling Act Review evaluation forward. It has no role in policy development, and does not have access to collected data. It is an advisory group providing technical methodological input to NatCen on the design of the evaluation and its implementation, to ensure it meets the highest possible standards. There are therefore no plans to assess its work as part of the evaluation findings.

The Advisory Group first met in November 2024, and has met four times since it was established, in order to provide technical advice as necessary. Membership of the group will be published at the same time as evaluation findings, in order to safeguard the integrity of the group and its advice in the meantime.

The Gambling Act Review evaluation is looking at the real-world impact of measures that have been implemented. Measures such as financial risk assessments have not been implemented and therefore are not included.

NatCen is separately working as an evaluation partner alongside the pilot of financial risk assessment, advising on methodology and data clarity and transparency. The Commission has also committed to ongoing review, evaluation and adaptation over time if Financial Risk Assessments are introduced.