Alcoholism: Berkshire
(asked on 16th January 2025) - View Source
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 the adequacy of the availability of treatment for people who are alcohol dependent in (a) Slough constituency and (b) Berkshire.
In 2023, there were 8,274 alcohol-specific deaths, deaths wholly due to alcohol, in England, which was an increase of 63.8% from the 5,050 deaths in 2006, and a 4.6% increase since 2022. The majority of these deaths are caused by alcohol-related liver disease.
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) has an action plan to reduce drug and alcohol-related deaths. In light of the recent data, this plan is being revised to ensure that it is grounded in the latest understanding of the drivers of drug and alcohol related deaths and is responding to these. Last year the Department published guidance for local authorities and their partnerships on how to review adult drug and alcohol-related deaths to prevent future deaths. Additionally, the OHID has published Commissioning Quality Standard: alcohol and drug services, providing guidance for local authorities to support them in commissioning effective alcohol and drug treatment and recovery services.
In addition to the Public Health Grant, the Department allocated local authorities £267 million in 2024/25 to improve the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment and recovery. An additional £105 million from the Department of Health and Social Care, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is improving treatment pathways and recovery, housing, and employment outcomes for people affected by drug and alcohol use. Future targeted funding for drug and alcohol treatment services beyond 2025 will be announced very shortly.
The Department will soon publish the United Kingdom’s clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment, which will include recommendations on arranging access for appropriate testing for liver disease, providing health assessments, and facilitating access to the appropriate treatment for people with co-occurring alcohol problems and physical or mental health conditions, as well as health promotion and harm reduction interventions. The Department continues to work with all local areas to address unmet need and drug and alcohol related deaths, and to drive improvements in the continuity of care. This includes the Unmet Need Toolkit which can be used by local areas to assess local need and plan to meet it.
Data from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System for 2023/24 shows 261 adults received structured treatment for alcohol dependence in Slough, and 270 in West Berkshire. The latest available prevalence estimates for alcohol dependence, for 2019/20, with the rate per thousand people, shows a rate of 13.07 for Slough and 9.55 for West Berkshire. This compares to a rate of 13.75 for England. Between 2021/22 and 2023/24 the number of adults in treatment for alcohol increased by 26% in Slough and 43% in West Berkshire.
Combining the treatment and prevalence data can show the percentage of adults with an unmet treatment need. Nationally, in 2023/24, the rate of adults with a treatment need who were not receiving treatment was 77.6%, with Slough showing an unmet need of 81.2%, and West Berkshire of 77%. Further information is available at the following link: