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 improve public health services focusing on (a) smoking cessation, (b) drug and alcohol and (c) children's health.

The Government is committed to improving public health as part of delivering a shift from sickness to prevention. As part of this, the Public Health Grant funds a range of preventative interventions across the country, including local authority-led stop smoking services, local authority-led alcohol and drug treatment services, and services which promote and support children’s health. The National Health Service’s 10-Year Health Plan will ensure that children and their families are cared for by the right professional, when and where they need it.

The Government is also delivering additional targeted interventions which will promote public health. On smoking, this includes delivering the national smoke-free pregnancy incentives scheme, and working to ensure that all hospitals integrate opt-out smoking cessation interventions into routine care.

For drug and alcohol treatment, the Government continues to invest in improvements to local alcohol and drug treatment and recovery services to enable people to access high quality help and support, should they need it. In addition, the Government has allocated local authorities a further £267 million in 2024/25 to improve the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment and recovery, alongside £105 million made available by the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to improve treatment pathways and recovery, housing, and employment outcomes for people with drug and alcohol problems.

The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever. There are a range of public health services through which children and their families can access support. This includes the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme, which places at its heart preventative health services from conception to the age of two years old, in 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation. In addition, the Healthy Child Programme provides targeted support, offering universal, personalised services provided by a health visiting team for those aged zero to five years old.