The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 7th January 2021:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked Her Majesty’s Government further to the statement in Government Response to the House of Lords Gambling Industry Committee Report: Social and Economic Impact of the Gambling Industry, published on 8 December:
- that gambling advertising did not correlate to gambling participation among 11 to 24 year olds, what plans they have to undertake a review of the effects of gambling advertising on children as part of the Gambling Act Review.
- how many gambling operators have been sanctioned due to breaches of rules committed by contracted affiliates.
Baroness Barran (Con, DCMS): The government launched its Review of the Gambling Act 2005 on 8 December with the publication of a Call for Evidence. As part of the wide scope of that Review, we have called for evidence on the benefits or harms of allowing gambling operators to advertise. We welcome any relevant evidence, including on the effects of gambling advertising on children.
The Gambling Commission has worked closely with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on the issue of affiliates in recent years and has tightened its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP). As a result, many operators have scaled back or terminated their affiliate programmes to come into line with regulatory expectations. Affiliate advertisement standards have also improved markedly as a result of the joined up work of the Commission and the ASA.
Due to ongoing compliance work, there has rarely been the need to take enforcement action against operators. Where there has, three gambling operators have been sanctioned due to breaches of rules committed by contracted affiliates since 2018/19.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked er Majesty’s Government, further to Government Response to the House of Lords Gambling Industry Committee Report: Social and Economic Impact of the Gambling Industry, published on 8 December, how they intend to record gambling related suicides.
Baroness Bethell (Con, DHSC): As detailed in the Government’s response to the Committee’s Report, we have no plans to separately identify gambling-related suicides as, amongst other things, coroners do not usually provide what might be understood as the ‘reason’ for a suicide in their verdicts, which would seriously compromise the reliability and, therefore, the validity of any resulting data.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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