Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

Baroness Hyde of Bemerton Excerpts

Thursday 25th June 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Hyde of Bemerton]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve awareness and reduce the prevalence of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, we continue to promote the advice of the Chief Medical Officers in the UK that pregnant women or those planning a pregnancy should avoid alcohol, alongside promoting the NICE quality standards on FASD. We are committed to ensuring that all pregnant women with alcohol problems are supported to reduce the risk of harm to them and the foetus. This includes providing local authorities, through the public health grant, with £3.4 billion of funding for alcohol and drug treatment and recovery over the next three years.

[Baroness Hyde of Bemerton (Lab)]

Labour Governments have a hugely successful track record of improving the health of the population, for example, reducing smoking in public places and the recent range of measures in the Tobacco and Vapes Act. Research evidence suggests that the impact of drinking alcohol in pregnancy—any amount of alcohol—may be comparable or greater than the risks of smoking. Therefore, would the Minister undertake to review all opportunities for enhancing prevention, such as adding foetal alcohol spectrum disorder prevention measures to the recent women’s health strategy, strategies for sexual and reproductive health and the interim mental health strategy? Will she also work with colleagues to ensure that FASD education and prevention is a policy priority for local authority health teams?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend is quite right. There are tremendous opportunities to link up work on tackling foetal alcohol spectrum disorder with other parts of our work, not least the major principle of moving from treatment of sickness to prevention. I assure my noble friend that we are working across government. We will also continue to work with all local areas so that we can address unmet need, prioritise prevention and make sure that we have improvements to alcohol treatment services. All of these will make a difference.