Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has he made of the potential reasons for the increase in people accessing alcohol support services post-covid.

There are several potential reasons for the 2% increase in people attending alcohol-only treatment in 2022/23, the period for which the most recent data is available.

In December 2021, the Government published its landmark 10-year drug strategy, backed by record funding. Although the primary focus of the strategy is drugs, commissioning and delivery of drug and alcohol treatment services are integrated in England. This means that implementation of the strategy is also benefitting people seeking alcohol treatment, through mechanisms such as new commissioning standards and plans to build back the workforce. £532 million of additional funding is being invested in local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England between 2022/23 and 2024/25, to increase the number of people in substance misuse treatment by 54,500 over this period.

Additionally, the 2021 Public Health England publication, Monitoring alcohol consumption and harm during the COVID-19 pandemic, found that increases in alcohol consumption since the beginning of the pandemic tended to be among people who were already heavy drinkers before this period. This report is available at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60f01076d3bf7f568a2d93e3/Alcohol_and_COVID_report.pdf