Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has she made of the potential implications for her policies of public health approaches to alcohol from other countries; and whether she has made an assessment of which country provides the best practice model.

The Department maintains an interest in the effectiveness of policies implemented by other countries, to reduce alcohol harms. The 2016 Public Health England publication, The public health burden of alcohol: evidence review, reviewed effective policies for reducing alcohol harms in countries who are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Officials in the Department frequently engage with international colleagues, and those in the devolved administrations, to exchange ideas, experience, and evidence when developing new policies.

The Government was involved in the work by the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop an action plan to strengthen the implementation of the Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol. We were pleased that the action plan was adopted at the 75th World Health Assembly in May 2022. The United Kingdom will continue to work with the WHO and member states on alcohol harm reduction.