January 2026 response to Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) assessment of the Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB)
This is an update on our progress in responding to the OSR recommendations (opens new tab)for the GSGB. In July 2025 we published our original response to the OSR report.
Actions in response to Professor Sturgis review
The OSR recommended that to improve user confidence in the GSGB, the Gambling Commission should develop a more detailed and comprehensive improvement plan to communicate how Professor Sturgis’ recommendations will be actioned (Recommendation 1).
In February 2024, Professor Sturgis published his independent assessment of the GSGB. The independent review (opens in new tab) assessed the GSGB’s methodological approach and made recommendations for improvements focusing on how the Commission should address unresolved issues relating to how the shift to self-completion has affected estimates of gambling behaviours.
In our last update, we said we had commissioned research to respond directly to the recommendations in the independent review by Professor Sturgis. Since then, the findings from the experimental research (opens in new tab) have been published. Following a request from our GSGB statistics user group, we hosted a webinar on 10 September 2025 to share and discuss the findings with them in more detail.
We delayed the publication of the second annual GSGB report (based on data collected in 2024) to 2 October 2025 in order to be able to take on board the feedback from the experimental research.
Recommendation 7 in Professor Sturgis’s independent assessment of the GSGB refers to benchmarking the GSGB against a contemporaneous face-to-face interview survey in the future. We explained in our last update that there will be an opportunity to do this when the raw data from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) and the 2024 Health Survey for England become available. However, we are also aware of a paper, Gambling products, gambling problems and gambling involvement: comparative analysis from two cross-sectional surveys, the Gambling Survey for Great Britain and the Health Survey for England series (opens in new tab), which has been published, which responds directly to this recommendation by benchmarking the GSGB against previous health surveys, and this will be updated when data from the aforementioned surveys become available.
Quality Assurance
The OSR recommended that the Commission should provide more detailed information on its quality assurance and validation processes to assure users and enhance confidence in the GSGB data.
Since our initial response to the OSR recommendations, the Commission has reviewed and updated the Gambling Survey for Great Britain - technical report, published in October 2025. We have brought all of the relevant information in the report into one place and provided further details where applicable including a section on data validation.
As highlighted by OSR, the Commission has also worked with the Bingo Association to design a question in the GSGB to understand where people play Bingo to help us validate GSGB data against Bingo Association industry data. The question was added to the GSGB in Wave 1, 2025. We expect to publish a report looking at the comparability and coherences of different data sets in early 2026.
Supporting appropriate use
To support appropriate interpretation and use of the GSGB data, the OSR recommended that the Commission should:
- clearly communicate to users within the statistical releases the potential biases that may affect the GSGB estimates, the possible impact of these and Professor Sturgis’ conclusion regarding the risk that the statistics potentially overestimate some gambling behaviours
- explain what the statistics can and can’t be used for, and why
- ensure that the guidance on how to use the statistics is easy to find and tailored to different users, such as the media.
The experimental research outlined in Recommendation 1 found that the risk of over estimation in the GSGB was not as high as initially thought. As a result, we have not added additional warnings to the publication about the risk of over estimation. However the strengths and limitations of the survey approach are clearly set out still in the Gambling Survey for Great Britain - technical report.
Following the experimental research we have updated our Guidance on using statistics from the Gambling Survey for Great Britain to make it clearer what the statistics can and can’t be used for and why. The updated guidance was sent to the GSGB statistics user group and discussed at a webinar on 10 September 2025.
To make it easier for users to find the guidance about using the GSGB statistics, we have added links to the guidance from our statistical landing pages and also from the excel data tables. We did this for the GSGB Year 2 (2024) Wave 4 data published on 22 May 2025 and have continued to do this as standard going forward.
Within our statistical releases we have also clearly stated to users that the GSGB produces estimates and these estimates are subject to potential biases. We delayed the publication of the GSGB Annual Report 2024 to allow time for the experimental research actioning Professor Sturgis’s recommendations to be completed, so we could be clearer about the impact of these potential biases.
Coherence and comparability
The OSR recommended to support user understanding of the GSGB’s role in the broader gambling data landscape, the Commission should do more to investigate the coherence and comparability of GSGB statistics with other relevant data, such as from the Health Survey for England and the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey that will be published later in 2025, and communicate these findings to users.
As outlined previously we are waiting for the raw data from these surveys to become available however some research has been published comparing GSGB to previous health surveys (opens in new tab). The research will be updated when the APMS data becomes available next year
Since our last update, we have also published our Evidence roadmaps framework, which was published on 23 October 2025. This supports user understanding of how the GSGB fits within the broader gambling data landscape.
From February 2026, we will also be aligning GSGB wave publications with our new quarterly industry statistics to enable comparability across datasets.
Engagement and communication
The OSR’s fifth recommendation was that the Commission should create and implement a GSGB user engagement strategy. This strategy should detail specific activities and how users will be involved at various stages of the survey’s future developments. The OSR also recommends the Commission should remain open to receiving challenge, provide feedback to users on their contributions and clearly communicate what can and cannot be addressed in the development of the GSGB statistics.
Since the last time we updated on progress against the OSR recommendations, a series of webinars with the GSGB statistics user group have taken place. We used the first meeting of the user group in July 2025 to understand topics of interest for our users, so we can plan future activities and to gather feedback on our Power BI dashboard which was used to inform what data we included in the dashboard, which was published on 2 October 2025.
Accessibility and usability
The OSR recommended to enhance the usability and accessibility of GSGB outputs, the Commission should consider how it can align further development of these statistics, including the detail that is provided and how it is presented, with user needs.
Following OSR’s recommendation, from October 2025 we have incorporated hyperlinks from the contents page in our published data tables to the relevant table of data.
In terms of developing the Power BI dashboard and adding more content to it as suggested by some of our stakeholders, we have done this as part of the publication of the Year 2 GSGB data published on the 2 October 2025. We consulted our statistics user group for feedback in relation to the development of the Power BI dashboard, asking them for ideas around the additional content they would like to see.
Response to OSR recommendations action plan
| Recommendation number |
Action | Timescale | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Update survey improvements page on GSGB hub with information about commissioning of experimental research | April 2025 | Yes |
| 1 | Host webinar to launch experimental research implementing recommendations 1 to 3 from Professor Sturgis report | April 2025 | Yes |
| 1 | Publish report from experimental research | August 2025 | Yes |
| 1 | Keep survey improvements page updated with latest developments | Ongoing | Not applicable |
| 2 | Provide more information on quality assurance within GSGB technical report, bringing together National Centre for Social Research and GC processes together in same place. | October 2025 | Yes |
| 2 | Publish research governance framework | Sping 2026 | No |
| 2 | Publish information on how the GSGB data is validated against other data sources within technical report | October 2025 | Yes |
| 3 | Add statement to each statistical release that there is a risk that the findings over estimate gambling harm | October 2025 | Not applicable |
| 3 | Add links to the guidance on how to use GSGB data from GSGB statistical landing pages and the technical report to aid users | October 2025 | Yes |
| 3 | Tailor outputs to different users, consider providing notes to editors alongside releases where appropriate | October 2025 | Yes |
| 3 | Use GSGB statistics user group to get feedback on what other information they would find useful in terms of what the statistics can and can't be used for | July 2025 | Yes |
| 3 | Update GSGB technical report bringing together the 2 sections around why the survey may under report (people with lived experience may not respond) and why it may over report (gambling focused) into the same section | October 2025 | Yes |
| 3 | Update guidance if necessary following experimental research based on Professor Sturgis’s recommendations and share with statistics user group | October 2025 | Yes |
| 4 | Following completion of experimental research to implement Recommendations 1-3 from Professor Sturgis’s report, update materials relating to consistency and comparability of GSGB with other related statistics | October 2025 | Yes |
| 4 | Publish a blog or relevant communication demonstrating how GSGB data fits within the broader gambling data landscape and how data is integrated with other sources | April 2026 | No |
| 4 | Benchmark GSGB data against 2024 Health Survey for England (discussing the findings from the 2 surveys and potential reasons for any differences) | April 2026 | Awaiting raw data |
| 4 | Benchmark GSGB data against APMS | April 2026 | Awaiting raw data |
| 4 | Demonstrate how GSGB links to evidence roadmaps | September 2025 | Yes |
| 5 | Create and publish user engagement strategy outlining how we will interact with users and understand their needs | July 2025 | Yes |
| 5 | Incorporate user views to enable the survey to remain relevant over time | Ongoing | Not applicable |
| 6 | Provide feedback to users on which of their contributions can and can't be addressed through GSGB | Ongoing through user group | Not applicable |
| 6 | Provide a channel for users to feedback to the GC about GSGB | June 2025 | Yes |
| 7 | Review stakeholder engagement network and broaden it where possible | Ongoing | Not applicable |
| 7 | Continue to build on partnerships with other official statistics producers | Ongoing | Not applicable |
| 8 | Develop and implement GSGB communications strategy | July 2025 | Yes |
| 8 | Make sure users are informed of any updates to the GSGB pages in a frequent, timely and transparent way (use e-bulletin and email GSGB statistics user group with updates) | Ongoing | Not applicable |
| 9 | Get feedback from users on the content from GSGB they would like to see published and how they would like to access data | July 2025 | Yes |
| 9 | Expand Power BI dashboard (more granular data, ability to cross tab more data and understand data at smaller geographical areas) | October 2025 | Yes |
| 9 | Incorporate hyperlinks from Excel contents page to tables in data tables | October 2025 | Yes |
| 9 | Investigate adding DOI for publications to allow us to track how GSGB is being used and/or published | October 2025 | Under investigation |
Last updated: 15 January 2026
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