Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce rates of alcoholism among women.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing their local need for treatment for alcohol dependence and commissioning a range of accessible services to meet these needs, including for alcohol-dependent women.

Public Health England (PHE) works with local authorities to support them in this work by providing them with advice, data and guidance.

PHE is supporting NHS England’s tobacco and alcohol commissioning for quality and innovation (CQUIN) scheme, which encourages hospitals to screen all inpatients about their alcohol and tobacco use and offer appropriate interventions. Guidance materials on the CQUIN are available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-ill-health-commissioning-for-quality-and-innovation

PHE is also working with NHS England to implement a programme targeting people who are alcohol dependent, as part of new prevention measures included in the National Health Service Long Term Plan.

PHE’s One You campaign aims to motivate people to take steps to improve their health through action on the main risk factors, such as alcohol consumption. The campaign is available to view at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/for-your-body/drink-less/