The frost between the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) shows no sign of thawing, with the latter unwilling to act on the former's suggestions, according to a spokesperson from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The OSR contacted the DHSC – of which OHID is a part – back in September 2024, making recommendations in the name of clarity and transparency regarding a 2023 OHID report entitled 'The economic and social cost of harms associated with gambling in England.'
Those requests were apparently ignored, with the statistics authority increasingly frustrated by the lack of cooperation from the health department.
We now understand that, in fact, OHID actively means to leave the report unaltered, turning a question of inaction into a more explicit story of inter-departmental non-cooperation.
This decision has been taken despite December’s public letter from Ed Humpherson, Director General of the OSR, which reads: “I am therefore writing to urge you to put measures in place to prevent the potential misuse of this analysis. I would be grateful for your commitment and continued support in ensuring statistics and data are communicated in a way that supports the public good and strengthens public debate.”
On the subject of that letter, a Correspondence Officer at the DHSC has told Global Gaming Insider that the department acknowledged the suggestions, but decided action was unnecessary.
Depending on which side of the debate you were on, the 2023 report was a protagonist or antagonist of the gambling tax reform debate that formed part of the build-up to the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget.
The start of the section 'Costing gambling-related harms' includes the following assessments: “The annual excess direct financial cost to government associated with harmful gambling is equivalent to £412.9m [$553m]” and, combined with the societal value of health impacts, “this provides a combined estimate of approximately £1.05bn to £1.77bn.”
These figures were cited widely by campaigners and lobbyists as justification for raising gambling taxes.
An SMF report called ‘Duty to Differentiate’ was also subject to an OSR review for referring to those costs as causal rather than associative.
In that case, the SMF latterly opted not to correct the wording in the report itself, but to include an asterisk at the bottom of the web page from which readers can navigate to the document.
This response was welcomed by Ed Humpherson in a letter published on 22 September 2025, but recommendations to OHID to take the same step have been disregarded.
The DHSC spokesperson maintains that the report – in both the main summary and technical documentation – already makes clear that the links are associative rather than causal, and the inclusion of a prominent banner on the landing page would be unwarranted.
We understand that the matter is now considered closed by the DHSC, though the OSR may yet disagree.
Remote gaming duty in the UK was raised from 21% to 40% in the Autumn Budget
