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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she is taking steps to require UK Research and Innovation to commission gambling research under the statutory gambling levy from (a) non-academic and (b) applied research organisations.

The government’s priority is to ensure funding is directed where it is needed most to deliver our objective to further understand and reduce gambling-related harms. DCMS and HMT Ministers have powers to decide how funding is divided between three key strands of work: research, prevention and treatment, and we are establishing robust governance structures to ensure the core aims of the levy are met within each of these strands.

Decisions on how levy funds are spent within research, prevention and treatment lie with commissioning leads. We are now working closely with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to set an ambitious and independent research agenda, and set the right scope for the future Centre on Gambling. The third sector will also continue to play a key role across the future system, including on research.