Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the the Royal College of Psychiatrists' analysis published on 14 September that estimated that the number of high-risk drinkers has risen from 4.8 million in February to 8.4 million during the COVID-19 pandemic; and what steps they plan to take based on any such assessment.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing local needs and commissioning alcohol services to meet these needs, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public Health England (PHE) supports local authorities in this work by providing advice, guidance and data.

PHE has been collecting and publishing a range of data on alcohol sales and consumption during the period of the pandemic. This data can be viewed as part of the Wider Impacts of COVID-19 on Health monitoring tool, which is available in an online only format.

The data indicates that while many people have taken the opportunity of lockdown to moderate their drinking, or to not drink at all, there is a group of people who are drinking at levels which increase their risk of harm.