FOI reference: FOI-2026-3392
You asked
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information.
This request relates to the collection and availability of data relating to gambling-related harm, including where gambling disorder or gambling activity is recorded as a contributing or aggravating factor in deaths, serious harm, or other adverse outcomes.
Whether your department or any body it oversees holds any central records, datasets, or statistics relating to deaths or serious harm where gambling disorder, problem gambling, or gambling activity is recorded as a contributing or aggravating factor.
If such information is held, please provide:
- the level of detail recorded (for example, whether gambling is recorded explicitly or as part of broader categories)
- any known limitations on the completeness or reliability of the data
- If such information is not held centrally, please confirm this and provide any explanation held as to why no central dataset exists.
- Please provide details of any internal reviews, assessments, or discussions since the start of 2022 that have considered gaps in data relating to gambling-related harm, including any recommendations made.
I am not requesting personal data or details relating to identifiable individuals.
We said
Thank you for your request.
ONS holds some information on suicides related to gambling.
Please note that we are responsible for the production of Mortality statistics for England and Wales only. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Our mortality statistics are derived from information collected at death registration. Information is supplied by the person registering the death (the informant) in addition to details provided on the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD).
All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules.
The underlying cause of death is defined by World Health Organisation as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
The ICD 10 code pertaining to mental disorders related to gambling is F63.0 -- Pathological gambling. Due to the coding rules explained above, this code is unlikely to be coded as the underlying cause of death but if involved in the death it would be recorded as a contributing factor. We have looked at our death registration database and found that since 2001 there has been 1 death where F63.0 was mentioned on the death certificate.
In addition to the information we receive from the death registration and the MCCD, we also receive details from the coroners' report where a death has been referred to a coroner for investigation. We have previously produced this user requested dataset which provides figures for deaths due to suicide where gambling was mentioned in the coroner's report. A text search for the words 'gamble, 'gambling' and 'gambled' was applied to the coroner's report for records where the underlying cause of death was suicide. The results returned records that mentioned the words 'gamble', 'gambling' and 'gambled'. Although this identified records where gambling was mentioned, the data is not considered completely reliable because the coroner will not always record detailed information regarding the deceased's history. Therefore, these figures represent how many records mentioned gambling on the death certificate but are likely to be an undercount. Updates to this request are available subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate.
Such enquiries should be made to Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.
The main area in which ONS has assessed gaps in data relating to gambling-related harm is in relation to suicides. The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England makes it clear that preventing suicides related to gambling is a high priority. The ONS has committed to improving data and evidence to support the implementation of the Strategy. We have undertaken internal and external discussions with stakeholders via Microsoft Teams calls, but don't hold recordings or transcripts of these meetings that can be shared. The outcome of these discussions were that the ONS will consider whether there are other data sources that could be linked to ONS death registration data to analyse suicides related to gambling.