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 uptake of community alcohol services.

A vital part of delivering the Health Mission shift to prevention will be action to reduce the harms from excess alcohol consumption. The Department of Health and Social Care is continuing to invest in improvements to local drug and alcohol treatment services. Funding for drug and alcohol treatment services is provided through the public health grant. In addition, local authorities have a further £267 million from the Department of Health and Social Care this year to improve quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment and recovery. This is 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 housing and employment outcomes for people affected by alcohol and drug use.

The latest provisional data from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System for the year ending in September 2024 suggests that there were over 97,000 adults in community treatment for alcohol and not any other drug and over 45,000 adults in treatment for problems with both alcohol and non-opiates. The number of people in treatment for alcohol and not any other drug has increased by 34% since the year ending August 2020 and is currently the highest since records began in 2005/6.

Additionally, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities has published a commissioning quality standard providing guidance for local authorities to support them in commissioning effective alcohol and drug treatment and recovery services in their areas. The Department of Health and Social Care will soon publish the United Kingdom Clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment which will include recommendations on developing effective, accessible, and inclusive services. More information on the commissioning quality standard is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/commissioning-quality-standard-alcohol-and-drug-services