Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of people were estimated to be binge-drinkers in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Information is not available in the format requested.

Current government recommendations are that adult men should not regularly drink more than 3-4 units of alcohol a day and adult women should not regularly drink more than 2-3 units a day.

The Office of National Statistics class heavy drinkers as those that drink more than six units in a day for women and more than eight units in a day for men (double the current lower risk guidelines) and this definition is often used as a proxy for “binge drinking”.

Information is available for the percentage of men who drank more than eight units and women who drank more than six units on at least one day in the last week prior to the interview for the General Lifestyle Survey and the General Household Survey (The Office of National Statistics).

Source: The Office of National Statistics (General Lifestyle Survey and the General Household Survey)