Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will be responsible for commissioning gambling harm treatment services in relation to the portion of the Gambling Levy allocated for treatment; and what role his Department expects that NHS England will have in the commissioning of gambling harm treatment services in the long term.

Under the new statutory levy on gambling operators which came into effect in April, NHS England and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales are the commissioners for gambling-related harm treatment and support services. They will receive 50% of available levy funding to improve and expand treatment services across Great Britain.

NHS England continues to lead work on the future design of treatment and support services in England, working closely with the other levy commissioners to ensure a co-ordinated approach to addressing gambling-related harms.

The Department of Health and Social Care will continue to work closely with NHS England and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to fully consider the implications of the NHS England transformation announcement on the future statutory levy commissioning structure.