Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the Government plans to include addiction or substance use disorder within the statutory definition of a mental disorder for the purposes of the Mental Health Act.

The Mental Health Act 1983, specifically Section 1, subsection 3, states that “Dependence on alcohol or drugs is not considered to be a disorder or disability of the mind” for the purposes of the act, and we did not amend this in the Mental Health Act 2025 that passed in December. We have no plans to change the definition of mental disorder.

We know that people with co-occurring substance use and mental health needs do not receive the integrated, person-centred care they require and deserve. The Department and NHS England have recently published Co-occurring mental health and substance use delivery framework, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/co-occurring-mental-health-and-substance-use-delivery-framework

This framework commits the Department and NHS England to delivering several national actions to improve delivery of integrated, person-centred care across drug and alcohol treatment and mental health services. The framework also includes recommended actions on how the health system can also work together to improve outcomes for those with co-occurring needs.