Standards

Research governance framework 

The Gambling Commission's Research Governance Framework.

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Published
30 April 2026

Last updated
30 April 2026 - Changes

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Contents

• Research governance framework 

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• Introduction
• • Research at the Gambling Commission
  • The Research Governance Framework
  • Developing and updating the research governance framework
• Ethical gambling research
• • Introduction to ethical gambling research
  • Core research principles and guidelines for ethical gambling research
  • Research involving AI
  • Conflicts of interest
  • Research misconduct
• Ethical approval for gambling research with human participants
• • Which projects require ethical approval
  • General considerations for ethical approval in gambling research
  • The ethical approval process
• The peer review process
• Roles and responsibilities
• Other external research involvement
• Research data governance
• • General principles of research data governance and research data safeguarding
  • What documents are required?
  • Data sharing
• Dissemination of research
• Monitoring, review and data corrections
• Appendices
• • Appendix 1: Ethics Checklist for projects requiring full Ethical Approval
  • Appendix 2: Data management plan checklist checklist
  • Appendix 3: Peer review checklist
  • Appendix 4: Research misconduct

3.3 - The ethical approval process

Once it has been determined that a research project requires ethical approval, the Research Manager should discuss with the Research Governance Manager if the project requires the following.

Full ethical review

Full ethical review for research projects that involve new participant recruitment. If the research project involves the recruitment of children, young people or vulnerable persons, the ethical review should consider their needs as outlined in section 3.2.2. The same applies if the research project involves sensitive topics that are deemed to have a higher risk of harm for participants (such as gambling research on topics such as problem gambling aspects, severe consequences of gambling harm and similar).

Light touch ethical approval

Light touch ethical approval for research projects that use pre-recruited participant panels for surveys, focus groups or similar. If the topic is particularly sensitive or the research focusses on vulnerable groups, the Research Governance Manager might advise that full ethical approval is needed for the research project, or parts of the project.

Re-using human data that contains personal information

For research projects re-using human data that contains personal information (not anonymised), the Research Manager should submit a project brief together with a Data Management Plan and DPIA (if required) to the Research Governance Manager for ethical review and approval. Research projects re-using pseudo-anonymised data should check with the data owner at the outset of the project if the intended research fits with the original data collection purpose.

External providers

If the research project is carried out by an external provider who has their own ethical review process, the external provider should carry out their own ethical approval. They should then send a copy of this for our records. Unless the external provider uses an academic standard Research Ethics Panel or equivalent, we will also require a completed ethics checklist and the supporting documents as detailed above (if the project needs full ethical approval). The Research Governance Manager may request additional information from the external provider if necessary.

Ethical approval process

For ethical approval, the Research Manager should send to the Research Governance Manager: the project sign-off form and the risk assessment (if the external provider does their own risk assessment, this should also be included). The risk assessment for ethical approval should detail the potential risks to participants and the process for their mitigation.

For full ethical approval, the external provider also needs to complete the ethics checklist which is based on the UKRIO's Researcher Checklist of Ethics Applications (opens in new tab) (PDF). They also need to submit all supporting documents such as the participant information sheet and consent form for ethical approval.

Once the required documents have been submitted, the Research Governance Manager will organise the ethical approval process for the research project. The ethical approval will review the submitted documentation, with special focus on the safety and protection of participants and researchers, participant information and the informed consent process. For ethical approval to be granted, the reviewers need to be adequately reassured about:

• the recruitment of participants and informed consent
• the right of participants to withdraw
• the care and protection of participants, and their confidentiality
• suitable research data management plans and data security, as well as any other Data Protection Act requirements including arrangements for data storage.

The ethical review and approval will be carried out by one or more Gambling Commission colleagues who have been appropriately trained and who are otherwise not connected to the research project. An independent external reviewer might be consulted if deemed necessary. Human participants can only be contacted once ethical approval has been granted. Research re-using non-anonymised human data can only proceed once ethical approval has been granted. For any other research involving the Gambling Commission, as outlined in section 6, the external organisation and/or external research lead or academic partner is responsible for ethical approval. We will ascertain if any relevant ethical approval has been granted for an external project that we may be involved with.

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General considerations for ethical approval in gambling research

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Last updated: 30 April 2026

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