Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce deaths from alcohol in the North East.

As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, we have provided national funding to support the implementation of specialist alcohol care teams in the 25% of hospitals with the highest rates of alcohol-related harm. 12 hospitals have received funding so far, of which two are in the North East - South Tyneside and Sunderland. A second wave of sites will be announced shortly.

We are also investing £533 million over three years to support local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England. This funding will be targeted to areas of highest need first. Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will soon be informing local areas of their funding allocations. As part of this funding, an inpatient detoxification grant, available until 2024/25, has been allocated increasing the availability of inpatient detoxification beds nationally.