Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the number of people needing treatment for alcohol use disorders.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to reducing the number of people in ill health, with the shift from treatment to prevention being a key priority.
Action to prevent harms from alcohol feature in multiple current strategies and plans. The recently published National Cancer Plan reiterated the commitment made in Fit for the Future: 10-Year Health Plan for England, to strengthen and expand on existing voluntary guidelines for alcohol labelling by introducing a mandatory requirement for alcoholic drinks to display consistent nutritional information and health warning messages. The Men’s Health Strategy outlines the impact alcohol can have on men’s health, and several initiatives to address this, including piloting a new brief intervention to target the rise in cardiovascular disease deaths from combined alcohol and cocaine use among older men.
Validated alcohol risk screening tools are being built into our new digital resources. The healthy choices quiz, launched in November, includes making health choices around alcohol and users receive tailored advice about reducing health risk from alcohol based on their input about their drinking. The healthy choices quiz and further information on its introduction is available, respectively, at the following two links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/millions-to-benefit-from-new-health-and-wellbeing-quiz
In addition, the NHS Health Check, designed to assess the top risk factors for cardiovascular disease, includes an alcohol assessment, and can refer people to further support for their alcohol use where appropriate.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the effectiveness of licensing regulations to protect people from alcohol-related harms.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Licensing Act 2003, which is overseen by the Home Office, requires licensing authorities to promote objectives relating to the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, the protection of children from harm, and the prevention of public nuisance, which together provide important safeguards against alcohol‑related harms.
The Government is considering how best to take forward recommendations to develop a modern, proportionate, and enabling licensing system. This work is being led by the Department for Business and Trade and the Home Office with support from other departments, including the Department of Health and Social Care, to ensure public health is fully considered.
We will continue to work across Government to consider what other measures might be needed to reduce the negative impact excessive alcohol consumption is having on health, crime, and the economy.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help support the routine use of digital consultations in community drug and alcohol treatment services.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As part of our shift from analogue to digital, the Department has provided guidance for alcohol and drug treatment services on maintaining a balance between digital, or remote, and in-person interventions. This guidance is available to view at the following link:
While the Department supports the use of digital consultations in community drug and alcohol treatment services, they should be considered alongside an assessment of risk and need, to determine whether they are suitable. There are circumstances in which there is no digital substitute for an in-person consultation.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to allow CQC-registered drug and alcohol treatment providers, including charities, to use the NHS Electronic Prescription Service in place of paper instalment prescriptions.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working with NHS England to extend the NHS Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) to include instalment dispensing for the FP10MDA, or controlled drugs, prescription type. This will allow eligible services, including drug and alcohol treatment providers and community pharmacies, to use EPS rather than paper prescriptions where this is appropriate.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) alcohol advertising and (b) websites selling alcoholic products provide reference to addiction support platforms.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the United Kingdom, the Advertising Standards Authority is responsible for regulating advertising through enforcing the codes set by the Committees of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice. There are rules about ensuring alcohol and drinking are portrayed in a responsible way, for instance adverts generally should not imply, condone, or encourage immoderate, irresponsible, or anti-social drinking. The codes do not currently require alcohol advertisements to signpost to addiction support services.
Online sales of alcohol are regulated under the Licensing Act 2003. There is currently no statutory requirement for online retailers to signpost to addiction support platforms.
The Department of Health and Social Care will continue to work with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, as the lead Government department responsible for advertising, and the Home Office, as the department responsible for licensing, to understand the evidence base and explore policy responses for addressing alcohol harms.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to fund NHS early-intervention services for children exhibiting gambling-related harm.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England currently funds a national service for children aged 13 years old and over who are experiencing gambling-related harms. This service is provided by the Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, and is available to children across England. The core treatment offer of this service includes cognitive behavioural therapy, delivered either individually or in age-appropriate groups, and family therapy. NHS England plans to design and begin an evaluation of this service in 2026/27, which will ultimately inform the longer-term commissioning approach.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of wealth inequality on levels of suicide.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
People living in the most deprived areas of England face a higher risk of suicide. Between 2020 and 2024, the age-standardised suicide rate for people aged 25 to 44 years old in the most deprived 10% of areas in England was 14.9 per 100,000 people, compared with 10.6 per 100,000 in the least deprived 10% of areas.
The Government is committed to delivering the five-year cross-Government Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, which sets out over 100 actions aimed at saving lives through early intervention, prevention initiatives, and better support for anyone who may reach crisis point.
The strategy recognises that nobody should be left out of suicide prevention efforts. This includes responding to the needs of marginalised communities and addressing inequalities in access to effective suicide prevention interventions, as well as listening to individuals and being responsive to their needs.
While the overall framework remains the same, the strategy was designed to be iterative, and we continue to consider where further action can be taken most effectively to reduce the number of lives lost to suicide.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what definitions his Department uses for the purposes of determining which activities constitute (a) prevention and (b) treatment in relation to gambling-related harms when allocating funding from the statutory gambling levy; and whether those definitions have been published.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
For the purposes of the Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Gambling Harms Prevention Fund for 2026 to 2028, potential activities include, but are not limited to: awareness and education; brief advice, early intervention, and harm reduction; community outreach and social action; support for affected others; digital tools, including gambling blocking tools; VCSE capacity building and resilience; and other non-clinical prevention activity. NHS England’s Gambling Harms Treatment Programme includes treatment and support services for those harmed by gambling, from the point of referral and triage through to aftercare and ongoing recovery support. Potential activities include clinical interventions such as cognitive behavioural support and non-clinical interventions, when functioning as psychosocial support and part of a structured care plan, such as peer support and recovery coaching. This information was published on the respective Find a Grant pages for each Fund.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what process NHS specialist gambling treatment clinics are required to follow in order to access funding from the statutory gambling levy; and if he will set out the criteria and decision-making framework used to assess funding allocations to those services.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Regional National Health Service gambling services are commissioned by integrated care boards (ICBs). NHS England will be developing a national commissioning specification during the first half of 2026/27 to ensure consistent, high-quality care across all gambling treatment and support services nationwide. This is ahead of ICBs becoming responsible for commissioning the full gambling harms treatment pathway within each region, inclusive of both NHS and voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector services, from 1 April 2027.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to develop a national fixed framework for the treatment of gambling-related harm.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England will be developing a national commissioning specification during the first half of 2026/27 to ensure consistent, high-quality care across all gambling treatment and support services nationwide. Given the evolving evidence landscape and NHS England’s plans to allocate funding to innovation and evaluation over the coming years, this document will be updated as required to reflect new findings.