Sarah Fox to join Gambling Commission executive team on secondment

Sarah Fox, a senior leader at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), is to join the Gambling Commission's Executive Team on secondment, the Commission announced on 29 July 2026. Fox will lead the Commission's Policy and Research and Statistics functions and National Lottery regulation.

Fox's move comes after the Gambling Commission's senior team saw recent changes, among them Tim Miller's departure. At DCMS she has spent four years heading the Gambling and Lotteries team, where her remit took in the gambling white paper and how it is put into practice, the handover and delivery of the 4th National Lottery Licence, and policy oversight of matters such as society lotteries and horse racing. Her Civil Service career spans more than 23 years and has included operational, strategic and policy posts at the Home Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Cabinet Office, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and DCMS. At DCMS she also serves as senior champion on disability, backing the staff network and applying her own experience to strengthen the organisation's disability confidence.

Sarah Gardner, Acting Chief Executive of the Gambling Commission, welcomed Fox in a statement. Gardner said the Commission was very lucky to bring in someone with Fox's background, explaining that the organisation's strategy is ambitious and that a recruit already familiar with both the gambling and lotteries sector would add real value. Gardner also said Fox's post would be essential as the Commission wraps up the last stages of white paper implementation, weighs the effects of those changes, and keeps safeguarding National Lottery players while getting the most for Good Causes.

Fox said that during the past four years she had observed the Commission's work directly, along with the knowledge, ability and drive of its teams, and that a great deal had been accomplished in a period that mattered to the gambling sector and to everyone with a stake in it. Moving to the Commission, she added, would let her help its team carry on with the goal of making gambling safer, fairer and crime free, and she was keen to take that chance.