Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) staff (i) were allocated to develop the forthcoming alcohol strategy in (A) 2017 and (B) 2018 and (ii) are currently allocated to developing that strategy and (b) full-time equivalent staff hours have been allocated to that strategy to date.

A new cross-government alcohol strategy, led by the Home Office and the Department for Health and Social Care, was announced in 2018. Since 2017 the Home Office Alcohol Team has ranged from five to seven full time equivalent members of staff at any one time.

We are unable to quantify the hours allocated specifically to the strategy as this work has been undertaken as part of wider work on alcohol policy and maintaining an effective licensing regime.