Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse was of NHS treatment for people with (a) smoking-related, (b) alcohol-related and (c) obesity-related illnesses in the most recent year for which data are available.

‘Towards a smokefree generation: A Tobacco Control Plan for England 2017-2022’, published in July 2017, suggests that in 2014/15, smoking cost the National Health Service in England £2.5 billion. The figure quoted includes the cost of treating smokers in primary and secondary care, general practitioner visits, nurse visits, prescriptions, outpatient visits and hospital admissions.

Data on NHS spending on treatment of alcohol related conditions is not collected centrally. However, the costs to the NHS in England associated with alcohol misuse are estimated at £3.5 billion each year.

‘The economic burden of ill health due to diet, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol and obesity in the UK: an update to 2006-07 NHS costs’ estimated that overweight and obesity cost the NHS in the United Kingdom £5.1 billion per year. This figure was uplifted to £6.1 billion in 2014/15 to take account of inflation.