Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of commissioning an independent review into alcohol harms.

No specific assessment has been made. However, in 2016 the former Public Health England published an assessment of the effectiveness of policies to reduce alcohol-related harm in England. This included a review of the evidence on the public health burden of alcohol in England and policy responses to reduce the health, social and economic harm.

Alcohol-related harms are being addressed through commitments in the ‘Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s’ green paper, the NHS Long Term Plan and improvements to the substance misuse treatment system through the drugs strategy ‘From harm to hope: A 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives’.