Alcohol: Addiction

Baroness Howarth of Breckland Excerpts

Monday 12th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

No, my Lords, they are not. The Government have regular dialogue with the industry, but the industry does not formulate policy and never will do. There has been a delay on the new guidelines; the consultation on them had been planned for December last year but will not now happen until shortly after the general election. That is simply due to problems with Public Health England commissioning expert advice on guideline methodologies, which took longer than intended. The academic body that PHE wanted to do the work decided that it did not have the capacity to do so. A tender exercise was therefore necessary and the work is being carried out by a team from Sheffield University.

[Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB)]

My Lords, the Minister is well aware of the effect of alcohol on unborn children. What are the Government doing for young mothers who are either addicted to drink or unaware of the difficulties that alcohol creates for their children in terms of education both through the health service and the education system?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the Royal College of GPs has a special focus at the moment on giving advice to GPs. We are also dramatically increasing the number of health visitors, who are, of course, highly instrumental in influencing the behaviours of mothers-to-be and young mothers.