Asked by: Andrew Bridgen (Independent - North West Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Answer of 3 October 2022 to Question 51665 on Gambling: Addictions, for what reasons the Gambling Commission did not inform her Department that it considered Public Health England’s estimate of the number of suicides in England associated with problem gambling to be inaccurate.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Gambling Commission is not required to produce an assessment of the work of other public bodies, and, unless formally requested to do so, it is not required to provide formal advice to the Department on its views regarding particular pieces of research or evidence. However, DCMS officials have regular discussions with the Commission on a range of issues relating to gambling regulation and the evidence on gambling, and this has included the Public Health England evidence report.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report by Public Health England entitled Gambling-related harms evidence review: the economic and social cost of harms, published in September 2021, if he will publish the full numerical mathematical calculation that was the basis for the estimate of the £619.2m annual cost of suicides associated with problem gambling.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department is reviewing the evidence published in Public Health England's ‘Gambling-related harms evidence review: the economic and social cost of harms’ report. We plan to publish an addendum in the autumn setting out the specific calculations and modelling assumptions in the report.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report by Public Health England entitled Gambling-related harms evidence review: the economic and social cost of harms, published in September 2021, if he will publish the full numerical mathematical calculation that was the basis for stating that there were 409 deaths by suicide associated with problem gambling only.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department is reviewing the evidence published in Public Health England's ‘Gambling-related harms evidence review: the economic and social cost of harms’ report. We plan to publish an addendum in the autumn setting out the specific calculations and modelling assumptions in the report.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support Hampshire and Isle of Wight integrated care system to deliver mental health services that meet levels of demand in that region.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We have provided Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System with funding to increase access to specialist maternal and perinatal mental health services for at least 600 women by March 2023. This will also allow increased access to psychological support for anxiety and depression for more than 50,000 people a year and new and integrated models of primary and community mental health care for over 13,000 people a year with complex mental health problems.
A suicide bereavement support service has been in place since April 2022 and a problem gambling pilot service has recently been launched. In addition, new mental health provision for rough sleepers is being developed.
Additional investment has improved the capacity and resilience of the mental health crisis pathway for children and young people and specialist community child and adolescent mental health services to address increased demand and historic waiting lists. This investment has also increased the capacity of prevention and early help services and expanded the provision of eight new mental health support teams since January 2021.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) women and (b) men have taken their own lives in the latest year-end statistics who had been experiencing gambling related harms.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the hon. Member’s Parliamentary Questions of 6 June is attached.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason there is currently no statutory duty to record gambling as a relevant factor in the determination of a suicide.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
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. Coroners may be made aware of information about the motivation or contributory factors in a suicide. However, it is likely that any such information collected by coroners would not necessarily be complete or consistent, and therefore not always useful for delivering these interventions.
Expecting coroners routinely to 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. Coroners are not permitted, by law, to appear to determine any question of civil or criminal liability against another person.
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 the individual case give rise to a concern. To promote learning, any PFD report and the responses to it must be sent to the Chief Coroner, who may publish them on the judiciary website.
Asked by: Ronnie Cowan (Scottish National Party - Inverclyde)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allowing coroners to record gambling addiction as a relevant factor to a death by suicide.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
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. Coroners may be made aware of information about the motivation or contributory factors in a suicide. However, it is likely that any such information collected by coroners would not necessarily be complete or consistent, and therefore not always useful for delivering these interventions.
Expecting coroners routinely to 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. Coroners are not permitted, by law, to appear to determine any question of civil or criminal liability against another person.
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 the individual case give rise to a concern. To promote learning, any PFD report and the responses to it must be sent to the Chief Coroner, who may publish them on the judiciary website.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December 2021 to Question 88799, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the Gambling Commission investigating a total of eight deaths by suicide where gambling may have been a factor since the start of 2018, in the context of Public Health England's September 2021 estimate that there are 409 gambling-related suicides a year; and in relation to those eight investigations, how many times the Commission reported the findings of its investigation to the coroner conducting the inquest into each death.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government does not collect statistics on suicides where gambling may have been a factor, although Public Health England’s evidence review estimated on the basis of two overseas studies that there may be 409 such deaths each year. The Department of Health and Social Care is working to improve data collection and address other evidence gaps identified in the report.
Operators who are aware of a death by suicide which may be linked to their gambling facilities are expected to notify the Gambling Commission so that it can investigate whether there has been a breach of social responsibility codes and take action where appropriate. Coroners’ jurisdiction does not extend to determining the underlying reasons for a person’s death, and the Commission does not routinely notify them of its findings. However, it has assisted a coroner in making their overall findings on the circumstances of an individual’s death in two cases since the beginning of 2018. The Commission co-operates with coroner inquiries whenever they are made, usually by providing information about the regulation of the gambling industry.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, (a) how many customer suicides have been reported by gambling operators for the past three years, (b) which operators have reported these and (c) how many of these suicides have been investigated by the Gambling Commission.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since the start of 2018, the Gambling Commission has been notified of and investigated reports of eight deaths by suicide where gambling may have been a factor. Seven of these cases were reported to it by the operator and one by family members. Operators who are aware of a death by suicide which may be linked to their gambling facilities are expected to notify the Commission so that the Commission can investigate whether there has been a breach of social responsibility codes and licence conditions and whether enforcement action is appropriate. It does not publish the names of operators which have reported information about deaths, but details of its findings following concluded enforcement action are published on its website.
Asked by: Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many deaths related to gambling harm were recorded in Great Britain in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
The Ministry of Justice publishes annual coroner statistics which include all short form and narrative conclusions such as accident or misadventure, open and suicide.
However, the statistics do not include the motivating factor behind the deaths as it is beyond the coroner’s jurisdiction to determine why someone died. The coroner’s statutory role is limited to determining the identity of the deceased; how, when and where they died; and any information needed to register the death.