Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide certainty on funding to voluntary organisations delivering drug and alcohol treatment services.

Local authorities, both upper tier and unitary, are responsible for commissioning drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services as part of their public health responsibilities. In addition to the Public Health Grant, in 2025/26 the Department is providing a total of £310 million in additional targeted grants to improve drug and alcohol treatment services and recovery support. This funding can be used by local authorities to support voluntary organisations to deliver drug and alcohol treatment services.

To better support upper tier and unitary local authorities’ vital public health work, from 2026/27 we will bring together over £4 billion of public health funding for local government, by consolidating service specific grants into the Public Health Grant. It is our intention to publish indicative Public Health Grant funding alongside the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement later this year, with final multi-year Local Authority Public Health Grant allocations published early in the new year. This will give local authorities more advanced notice of their total funding allocations, further empowering them to plan more effectively and better manage their services.