Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress his Department has made on a National Alcohol Strategy; and how many specialist health (a) charities and (b) academics are involved in the development of that strategy.

The Government remains committed to tackling harms caused by alcohol, including cancer-related harms. That is why we are developing a new alcohol strategy that will set out targeted action to prevent and reduce harmful drinking, support vulnerable people affected by others’ alcohol misuse and improve the pathways into treatment for people with alcohol dependency.

This is a cross-government strategy announced by the Home Office and the Department for Health and Social Care, who are working closely with a range of stakeholders and have engaged with industry, clinicians, academia and the voluntary sector.

In July 2018, the Minister for Public Health and Primary Care hosted a roundtable with health experts including representation from the Alcohol Health Alliance, Institute of Alcohol Studies, Collective Voice UK, the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, British Society of Gastroenterology, Alcohol Research UK, Association of Directors of Public Health, Faculty of Public Health, Association of Mental Health providers, Adfam, Cancer Research UK and the UK Health Forum.

In addition the Minister also hosted an ‘experts by experience’ roundtable in collaboration with the charities Collective Voice and NHS Substance Misuse Providers Alliance, and with families in collaboration with the charity Adfam. Another expert roundtable on Foetal Alcohol Syndrome is scheduled in September 2018, alongside further engagement with experts in the coming months on priority areas for the strategy.