Written Evidence Sep. 05 2023
Inquiry: Gambling regulationFound: GAM0125 - Gambling regulation Peers for Gambling Reform Written Evidence
Written Evidence Nov. 29 2023
Inquiry: Men's healthFound: reduce and prevent such harm is lagging far behind other risk factors, including tobacco, obesity and gambling
Mar. 06 2024
Source Page: Scotland's Mental Health and Wellbeing Delivery Plan: Equality Impact AssessmentFound: The socio -demographic profile of gamblers appears to change as gambling risk increases, with harmful
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, , in what circumstances a death certificate will describe a suicide as being related to gambling.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The information recorded by the coroner in the Record of Inquest is dependent on the circumstances of the individual case and is at the coroner’s discretion as an independent judicial office holder in the exercise of their statutory functions. The register is completed by the Registrar using the coroner’s certificate after inquest, and will record the medical cause of death and the conclusion of the inquest. A death certificate contains the same information as the register entry.
The Government recognises that quality information on the circumstances leading to self-harm and suicide, including issues relating to gambling addiction, can support better interventions. However, whilst coroners may be made aware of information about the motivation or contributory factors in a suicide, it cannot be guaranteed that consistent and comprehensive information on a deceased person’s background will be made available to the coroner in every case.
In addition, expecting coroners to routinely assess the motivation for individual suicides would take the coronial role fundamentally beyond its legal parameters, which are to determine who died, and how, when and where they died.
However, in addition to the inquest conclusion, coroners have a statutory duty to make a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report to a person where an investigation gives rise to a concern that future deaths will occur, and the coroner considers that action should be taken to reduce that risk. PFD reports are about learning and improvements to public health, welfare and safety and could, for example, raise concerns relating to gambling addiction where the circumstances of an individual case give rise to a concern. To promote learning, all PFD reports and the responses to them must be provided to the Chief Coroner, and most are published on the judiciary website.
Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what circumstances a coroner will register a suicide as being related to gambling.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The information recorded by the coroner in the Record of Inquest is dependent on the circumstances of the individual case and is at the coroner’s discretion as an independent judicial office holder in the exercise of their statutory functions. The register is completed by the Registrar using the coroner’s certificate after inquest, and will record the medical cause of death and the conclusion of the inquest. A death certificate contains the same information as the register entry.
The Government recognises that quality information on the circumstances leading to self-harm and suicide, including issues relating to gambling addiction, can support better interventions. However, whilst coroners may be made aware of information about the motivation or contributory factors in a suicide, it cannot be guaranteed that consistent and comprehensive information on a deceased person’s background will be made available to the coroner in every case.
In addition, expecting coroners to routinely assess the motivation for individual suicides would take the coronial role fundamentally beyond its legal parameters, which are to determine who died, and how, when and where they died.
However, in addition to the inquest conclusion, coroners have a statutory duty to make a Prevention of Future Deaths (PFD) report to a person where an investigation gives rise to a concern that future deaths will occur, and the coroner considers that action should be taken to reduce that risk. PFD reports are about learning and improvements to public health, welfare and safety and could, for example, raise concerns relating to gambling addiction where the circumstances of an individual case give rise to a concern. To promote learning, all PFD reports and the responses to them must be provided to the Chief Coroner, and most are published on the judiciary website.
Require a cooling off period and mental health adverts on gambling platforms
- Final Signatures: 79
We would like the Government to legislate for a cooling off period, prior to every bet being confirmed, on all gambling platforms, to help protect people from gambling harms. This should be combined with mandatory mental health adverts across all gambling platforms.
Found: In 2023, it is estimated that there were up to 496 deaths by suicide relating to gambling in England,
Written Evidence Sep. 05 2023
Inquiry: Gambling regulationFound: GAM0110 - Gambling regulation SE Written Evidence
Written Evidence Nov. 29 2023
Inquiry: Men's healthFound: reduce and prevent such harm is lagging far behind other risk factors, including tobacco, obesity and gambling
Written Evidence May. 21 2024
Inquiry: Boys’ attainment and engagement in educationFound: messages that they are struggling, often because we find them confronting, e.g., gaming, pornography, gambling
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many deaths that occurred in England and Wales in the past four years mentioned gambling anywhere on the death certificate.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the response attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Rt Rev. the Lord Bishop of St Albans
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
25 July 2023
Dear Lord Bishop,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking how many deaths occurred in England and Wales in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021 and (4) 2022 where malnutrition was either the cause of death or was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate (HL9519); and how many deaths that occurred in England and Wales in the past four years mentioned gambling anywhere on the death certificate (HL9520).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes statistics on deaths registered in England and Wales. Mortality statistics are compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration. Causes mentioned on the death certificate are converted to International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes, with the underlying cause of death defined as the disease or injury that initiated the events that directly lead to the death. At the ONS, we use the term “due to” to refer to the underlying cause of a death and the term “involving” where a cause is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate.
The ICD codes for malnutrition are E40 to E46, which come under the endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases sub-chapter. This consists of:
• E40- Kwashiorkor
• E41- Nutritional Marasmus
• E42- Marasmic kwashiorkor
• E43- Unspecified severe protein-energy malnutrition
• E44- Protein-energy malnutrition of moderate and mild degree
• E45- Retarded development following protein-energy malnutrition
• E46- Unspecified protein-energy malnutrition
Table 1 shows the number of deaths due to and involving malnutrition ICD-10 codes, that occurred from 2019 to 2022, and were registered by 7 July 2023, in England and Wales. Deaths due to malnutrition are very uncommon; mortality data and hospital admissions both show that malnutrition is usually accompanied with several other diagnoses. Further information on the nature of malnutrition as a cause of death can be found on our blog [1] .
The ICD codes for gambling consist of:
• Z72.6- Gambling and betting
• F63.0- Pathological gambling
There were no deaths in the past four years involving gambling ICD-10 codes registered in England and Wales. While these codes exist, they are likely to be used only in the case of medically diagnosed gambling addiction. To identify some deaths involving gambling, we can also use the coroner’s text report from deaths registered involving suicide (ICD codes X60 to X84, Y10 to Y34). It is possible that more suicides were related to gambling, but this cannot be definitively stated, as not all the circumstances are necessarily known or reported in the death registration by the coroner. Table 2 shows the number of deaths where gambling was mentioned in the coroner’s text, that occurred from 2019 to 2022, and were registered by 31 December 2022 [2] , registered in England and Wales.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Table 1: Numbers of deaths due to and involving malnutrition, deaths occurring from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2022, England and Wales [3,4,5,6].
Year | Due to malnutrition | Involving malnutrition |
2019 | 76 | 390 |
2020 | 78 | 383 |
2021 | 85 | 398 |
2022 | 67 | 386 |
Source: Office for National Statistics
Table 2: Numbers of deaths involving intentional self-harm and events of undetermined intent where gambling was mentioned in the coroner’s text, deaths occurring from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2022, England and Wales [4,7,8].
Year | Involving gambling |
2019 | 4 |
2020 | 4 |
2021 | 1 |
2022 | 0 |
Source: Office for National Statistics
[2] For information on the impact of registration delays please see: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/impactofregistrationdelaysonmortalitystatisticsinenglandandwales/latest
[3] Figures are for deaths occurring in each period and registered by 7 July 2023.
[4] Figures include deaths of non-residents.
[5] International Classification of Diseases 10th edition (ICD-10) codes are as follows; E40, Kwashiorkor; E41, Nutritional marasmus; E42, Marasmic kwashiorkor; E43, Unspecified severe protein-energy malnutrition; E44, Protein-energy malnutrition of moderate and mild degree; E45, Retarded development following protein-energy malnutrition; E46, Unspecified protein-energy malnutrition.
[6] Number of deaths by ICD-10 code are available through our explorable dataset NOMIS from 2013 onwards, this can be accessed here: Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics - Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics (nomisweb.co.uk)
[7] Figures are for deaths occurring in each period, and registered by 31 December 2022; death registration data for 2023 are provisional and do not yet provide coroner’s text information.
[8] International Classification of Diseases 10th edition (ICD-10) codes are as follows; X60 to X84 and Y10 to Y34.