Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will include provisions for minimum alcohol pricing in his forthcoming homelessness strategy.

The Rough Sleeping Strategy is due to be published shortly, and will include a range of measures to support people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

Further to this, the Government is developing a new cross-government alcohol strategy which will set out targeted action to prevent and reduce harmful drinking, support vulnerable people affected by others’ alcohol misuse and improve the pathway into treatment for people with alcohol dependency. While the new strategy will not include a commitment to introduce minimum unit pricing at this time, the policy remains under review. As part of the work on the new strategy, Public Health England will be commissioned to carry out a scientific review into the impact of minimum unit pricing as evidence becomes available from Scotland, following its recent implementation, and Wales in due course.