Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will meet charities representing people affected by alcohol harm to inform her Department’s work on health prevention.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department meets regularly with alcohol charity representatives, at a ministerial and official level, and is content to continue to do so, to support and inform our work in tackling alcohol related health harms.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to increase awareness of (a) alcohol harm and (b) support services for alcohol abuse.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is aware of and continues to act to reduce levels of harm caused by alcohol use. The Department continues to promote the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ Low Risk Drinking Guidelines in England through online platforms, and local authorities continue to promote them as part of their public health duties. This provides the public with the most up-to-date scientific information to help people make informed decisions about their own drinking, including the health harms of alcohol consumption. The Government has also published guidance and worked with the alcohol industry to ensure that alcohol labels reflect these guidelines for drinks produced after September 2019. This ensures consumers have the best available information at the point of purchase or consumption.
The Government takes a wide-ranging approach to addressing alcohol-related harms, including the establishment of alcohol care teams in the 25% acute hospitals in England with the greatest need through the NHS Long Term Plan, and improvements to the alcohol and drug treatment system through the 10-year Drug Strategy.
Although the primary focus of the strategy is drugs, implementation of the strategy is also benefitting people seeking alcohol treatment, through mechanisms such as new commissioning standards and plans to build back the drug and alcohol treatment 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.
The Department launched its drug and alcohol treatment press partnership campaign on 18 January 2024. The content in the campaign will aim to build awareness of the effectiveness of drug and alcohol treatment, how it can help and how to access it. The Press Partnership is a programme run by the Department which works with over 350 national, regional, local and multicultural print newspapers, with a reach of over 34% of adults in England, or 17.7 million.
Written Evidence Apr. 19 2024
Inquiry: Prevention in health and social careFound: related harm. 2.With regards to our funding, we have always been transparent about that fact that
Correspondence Sep. 29 2023
Committee: Criminal Justice CommitteeFound: Cross-committee meeting on tackling drug deaths and drug harm Letter from the Convener, Criminal Justice
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has she made of the potential implications for her policies of public health approaches to alcohol from other countries; and whether she has made an assessment of which country provides the best practice model.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department maintains an interest in the effectiveness of policies implemented by other countries, to reduce alcohol harms. The 2016 Public Health England publication, The public health burden of alcohol: evidence review, reviewed effective policies for reducing alcohol harms in countries who are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Officials in the Department frequently engage with international colleagues, and those in the devolved administrations, to exchange ideas, experience, and evidence when developing new policies.
The Government was involved in the work by the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop an action plan to strengthen the implementation of the Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol. We were pleased that the action plan was adopted at the 75th World Health Assembly in May 2022. The United Kingdom will continue to work with the WHO and member states on alcohol harm reduction.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of raising alcohol duty.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department regularly engages with HM Treasury on issues of duty in relation to public health. The Government has already delivered on its commitment to review the outdated and complex alcohol duty system and introduced the biggest reform of alcohol duties in 140 years. As of 1 August 2023, all alcohol is now taxed by strength, putting public health at the heart of alcohol duty. This is helping to target problem drinking by taxing products associated with alcohol-related harm at a higher rate of duty.
Correspondence May. 22 2024
Committee: Health and Social Care Committee (Department: Department of Health and Social Care)Found: Under Secretary of Sate for Public Health on Naloxone and the ten-year Strategic Plan for the Drug and Alcohol
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will have discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on ensuring a cross-departmental approach to tackling alcohol harm in (a) domestic and (b) community settings.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to tackling alcohol-related harms, with a strong programme of work underway to address alcohol-related issues and the impact they have on individuals and communities.
The Department regularly engages with the Home Office on tackling alcohol harms. This includes the establishment of Alcohol Care Teams in the 25% of acute care hospitals in England with the greatest need, as well as improvements to the drug and alcohol treatment system through the 10-year Drug Strategy.
The Home Office has focused on improving local intelligence, establishing effective partnerships and equipping the police and local authorities with the right powers to take effective actions against alcohol related crime. They have updated and piloted training material aimed on frontline professionals to highlight the impact alcohol misuse can have where domestic abuse is present.
Correspondence Mar. 22 2024
Committee: Health, Social Care and Sport CommitteeFound: Minimum unit pricing of alcohol Letter from Public Health Scotland to the HSCS Convener concerning minimum
Report Mar. 28 2024
Committee: Health, Social Care and Sport CommitteeFound: Subordinate legislation considered on 26 March 2024 - Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol This report sets