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

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that lived experience groups are included in the (a) research, (b) prevention and (c) treatment of gambling harms.

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 want a range of expertise, including that of lived experience, to inform commissioning bodies’ efforts to deliver on the government’s objectives across research, prevention and treatment. Commissioning bodies are working at pace to develop spending plans and will update in due course.