Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Public Health England's guidance, Health Matters: Identifying and offering brief advice to tobacco and alcohol users, published on 21 March 2019, for what reasons that guidance does not make reference to the risk of drinking alcohol in pregnancy.

‘Health Matters: identifying and offering brief advice to tobacco and alcohol users’ guidance supports service providers in implementing the screening and advice for tobacco and alcohol use in inpatient settings commissioning for quality and innovation (CQUIN) scheme. Health Matters can be viewed at the following link:

https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2019/03/21/health-matters-identifying-and-offering-brief-advice-to-tobacco-and-alcohol-users/

The national CQUIN scheme offers National Health Service providers the chance to identify and support adult inpatients who smoke and adult inpatients who are drinking above the United Kingdom chief medical officers’ (CMOs’) low risk drinking guidelines.