Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of people referred for alcohol addiction support.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities publishes adult substance misuse treatment statistics annually which includes the numbers of adults aged 18 and over in contact with drug and alcohol treatment services in England. The latest publication is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/substance-misuse-treatment-for-adults-statistics-2023-to-2024/adult-substance-misuse-treatment-statistics-2023-to-2024-report

This publication provides an analysis of trends over time. The data over the last ten years for adults newly presenting to treatment for alcohol only and treatment for alcohol and non-opiate drugs shows that from a previous high in 2013/14 of 84,533, the number of new presentations to treatment fell year-on-year between 2014/15 and 2017/18. The number of new presentations remained relatively stable between 2017/18 and 2020/21, before rising continuously since then to a new high of 94,782 in 2023/24. This is the highest number since records began in 2008.

The most recent estimates of alcohol dependence in England from 2019/20 suggest that, of the people with alcohol dependence that could benefit from specialist alcohol treatment, in 2023/24, 80% were not in treatment.

The following table shows the above information in more detail:

Source: National Drug Treatment Monitoring System

Information on the number of young people under 18 years old being treated for substance misuse, including alcohol, is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/alcohol-and-drug-misuse-and-treatment-statistics