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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the introduction of rules by the Betting and Gaming Council aimed at preventing football clubs using social media to promote gambling, what plans they have to ensure other forms of potentially harmful advertising are addressed.

My department has been considering how online advertising is regulated through its Online Advertising Programme, and will be consulting on this issue later this year. Our aim is to foster fair, accountable and ethical online advertising that works for citizens, businesses and society as a whole. In particular, we want to ensure standards about the placement and content of advertising can be effectively applied and enforced online so that consumers have limited exposure to harmful or misleading advertising.

The government launched its Review of the Gambling Act 2005 on 8th December with the publication of a Call for Evidence. As part of the broad scope of that Review, we have called for evidence on the benefits or harms of allowing gambling operators to advertise. The Call for Evidence will remain open until 31 March, and no policy decisions have yet been made. The government intends to set out conclusions, including any proposals for change, in a white paper later this year.