Sentencing Bill

Allison Gardner Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 16th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dr Allison Gardner (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)]

Like my colleagues, I very much welcome the move to favour community sentences over short custodial sentences, as the Sentencing Bill provides. As we know, short-term sentences often lead to reoffending, which places a much-needed emphasis on rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation plays a vital role in addressing the root causes of offending. There is a wealth of research on the risk factors associated with offending and reoffending, with drug and alcohol dependency among the most prominent factors. Although there is slightly less research on this matter, I am increasingly concerned about the link between problem gambling and crime. Gambling disorders can and do lead to criminal offending, which is often committed out of desperation. The Commission on Crime and Gambling Related Harms has highlighted clear connections between gambling and various types of crime, including acquisitive crime, street robbery, domestic abuse, criminal damage and drug offences. Although gambling can be a fun activity for some, a gambling disorder can very easily take over an individual’s life: rates of suicide are significant, disordered gambling can ruin families, and gambling disorders push people into debt and subsequently into crime.

I am concerned about the fact that gambling disorders are not given parity of esteem with substance addictions by the criminal justice system. There is a range of rehabilitation requirements to support prisoners sentenced with severe drug and alcohol dependencies, but there is no such statutory support for gambling-related offences. That is a potential gap in the Bill that could be addressed in Committee. Gambling disorders share similar cognitive and mental health characteristics to substance addiction. Problem gambling is officially recognised as a mental health disorder in both the World Health Organisation’s international classification of diseases, and the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders”, sitting alongside traditional substance addictions. Addressing problem gambling in the criminal justice system must therefore be treated as a public health and rehabilitative issue, in much the same way that we address drug and alcohol addiction.

The gambling levy, introduced in April, will fund treatment, research, education and prevention in relation to gambling harms. I credit the Government and the NHS for working exceptionally hard to support those suffering from this cruel addiction. However, I am concerned that departmental silos may hinder the effective delivery of support in the criminal justice system.

The Sentencing Act 2020 mandated drug rehabilitation for offenders convicted of drug and alcohol-related crimes. Part 10(19)(1)(a) of schedule 9 to the Act states that the offender

“must submit to drug rehabilitation treatment, which may be resident treatment or non-resident treatment”.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Gardner]

Unfortunately, the legislation did not mandate that individuals sentenced for gambling-related offences must seek rehabilitative treatment for their gambling disorder. Again, I suggest that the Bill could correct that as it progresses through the House.

In a survey conducted by the University of Staffordshire, 99.6% of stakeholders supported sentencing options that mirror those used for drug and alcohol addiction, including the option to contribute to rehabilitation activity requirement days. Currently, community sentence treatment requirements propose drug and alcohol rehabilitation requirements for individuals sentenced to a community order, where the offender has consented to receiving treatment for substance misuse. Again, that is not offered to those with gambling disorders.

There is a clear need for greater intervention. In a report commissioned by the Centre for Crime, Justice and Security at the University of Staffordshire, between 2022 and 2024, 41% of people under probation supervision reported regular gambling. I echo the heartfelt support that Government Members have expressed for all the probation officers and prison officers working extremely hard and their need for resources to support offenders in rehabilitating.

In 2023, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities estimated that the imprisonment costs associated with problem gambling are equivalent to £167.3 million per year. I thank the Minister for our conversations regarding this issue. I ask him to consider the merits of mandating rehabilitative treatment for individuals sentenced for gambling-related offences because of a gambling disorder and whether a proportion of the gambling levy funds could be ringfenced to fund this treatment.