Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the implications for her policies on harm caused by alcohol are of the finding in the Balance report, The second hand harm of alcohol in the North East, published on 17 February 2016, on the proportion of people in the North East who have suffered harm at least once due to the drinking of others in the last 12 months.

The Balance report ‘The second hand harm of alcohol in the North East’ highlights a range of harms caused by other people’s drinking. The Government acknowledges that the costs of alcohol-related harm are too high. Alcohol-related harm is estimated to cost society over £21 billion per year, including £11 billion costs of alcohol-related crime, £3.5 billion costs to the NHS and £7.3 billion costs in lost productivity based on 2009-10 data. The Government will soon be publishing a Modern Crime Prevention Strategy which will set out new action to reduce alcohol-fuelled crime and violence.