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Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs: Misuse
Monday 5th September 2022

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the new Integrated care systems will be expected to produce drug and alcohol and substance misuse strategies.

Answered by Maggie Throup

Integrated care partnerships are required by the Health and Care Act 2022 to develop integrated care strategies. We anticipate that the forthcoming statutory guidance for these strategies will highlight the involvement of drug and alcohol treatment providers as strategies are developed.

On 15 June 2022, guidance was issued on how local delivery partners, including the National Health Service and local authorities, should form multi-agency Combating Drugs Partnerships to reduce drug-related harm. These partnerships will develop a shared local plan, alongside other local delivery programmes such as integrated care strategies, to address the priorities identified by the cross-Government drugs strategy.


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs: Misuse
Tuesday 8th February 2022

Asked by: Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative - Shrewsbury and Atcham)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what funding the Government provides to support local authorities and other agencies in drug and alcohol prevention.

Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education

On 6 December 2021 the Government published ‘From harm to hope – a 10 year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives”’ The strategy focusses on prevention among children and young people and that treatment also has a preventative effect. The most effective and sustainable approach to reducing demand for drugs is building resilience in young people and the strategy sets out measures to prevent the onset of drug use among children and young people, including through universal education and targeted work with young people and families.

We have committed £780 million over the next three years to deliver a treatment and recovery system. Of this, £533 million will enable local authorities to commission and invest in substance misuse treatment services in England. This is in addition to the current annual Public Health Grant, with which we expect local authorities to continue to invest in drug and alcohol treatment and prevention services. This will enable better integration of mental health services and substance misuse treatment. We are working with the National Health Service to introduce effective pathways and better integration between substance misuse and mental health treatment, including improving the skills of the substance misuse workforce.


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs: Misuse
Friday 24th December 2021

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people were admitted to emergency departments where substance misuse of (a) drugs and (b) alcohol was a contributing factor for their reason for attendance in the last year.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is not held in the format requested.

The number of people attending accident and emergency departments is not collected, as individual patients may have multiple attendances. However, the following table shows data on the total number of emergency department attendances for which drugs and alcohol were recorded as a primary or a secondary diagnosis in 2020/21.

Alcohol

Drugs

112,439

27,050

Source: NHS Digital

Note:

In 2020-21, 74.8% of attendances in the Emergency Care Data Set had a valid code recorded in the diagnosis field. Therefore, it is possible that the figures provided may be an under-representation of actual activity.


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs: Misuse
Friday 23rd July 2021

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the average caseload numbers for drug and alcohol addiction caseworkers.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No recent estimate has been made.


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs: Misuse
Thursday 22nd July 2021

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for drug and alcohol misuse services.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In 2020, Dame Carol Black was commissioned to lead an independent review of drugs, focussing on treatment, recovery and prevention, including an assessment of the adequacy of drug and alcohol misuse service funding. The review was published on 8 July and makes 32 recommendations to Government, including increasing levels of funding to drug and alcohol misuse services. The review is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-drugs-phase-two-report

A Government response to the review will be published shortly.


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs: Misuse
Thursday 22nd July 2021

Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)

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 potential merits of reforming the Mental Health Act to include mandatory care for people suffering from addiction.

Answered by Nadine Dorries

We have not made a formal assessment. For the purposes of the Mental Health Act 1983, drug or alcohol addiction are not considered to be mental disorders. This is stated in section 1(3) of the Act. The reforms to the Act proposed in the Government’s White Paper, published in January, respond directly to the recommendations made by Sir Simon Wessely’s independent review of the Mental Health Act. The review’s terms of reference, as set by the Government, did not extend to a consideration of including addiction within the provisions of the Act.


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse
Tuesday 13th October 2020

Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - North Tyneside)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 22 September 2020 to Question 85006 on Alcoholic Drinks: Misuse and with reference to his Department’s engagement with an external stakeholder advisory group on future placement of Public Health England’s responsibilities for drugs and alcohol policy, if he will list the (a) composition of the advisory group and (b) schedule of meetings between that advisory group and his Department.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The membership of the stakeholder advisory group is shown in the following table. The schedule of its recent meetings is as follows:

2 September

10 September

16 September

24 September

Future dates are to be confirmed.

Name

Organisation

Role

Jeanelle de Gruchy

The Association of Directors of Public Health

President

James Jamieson

Local Government Association

Chair

Seema Kennedy

Former Public Health Minister

Helen Stokes-Lampard

Academy of Medical Royal Colleges

Chair

Matt Fagg

NHS England

Director of Prevention

Matthew Winn

NHS England

Improvement Director of Community Health

Ed Garratt

Suffolk Integrated Care System

Executive Lead for the Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care System (ICS)

Professor Maggie Rae

Faculty of Public Health

President

Danny Mortimer

NHS Confederation

Chief Executive

Dr Jennifer Dixon

Health Foundation

Chief Executive

Paul Najsarek

SOLACE

Chief Executive, Ealing Council

Professor Jo Pritchard MBE

Social Enterprise UK

Chief Executive

Prof John Newton

Public Health England

Director of Health Improvement

Dr Jenny Harries

Department of Health and Social Care

Deputy Chief Medical Officer

Prof Paul Cosford

Test and Trace

Joint Chief Medical Officer

Professor John Deanfield

Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist and Chair, NHS Health Checks Review

Professor Sir John Bell

Life Sciences Champion

Professor Kevin Fenton

Public Health England

Regional Director, London

Christina Marriott

Royal Society of Public Health

Chief Executive

Martin Reeves

Coventry City Council

Chief Executive

Paul Farmer

MIND

Chief Executive

Professor Susan Jebb

Nuffield Institute of Primary Health Care Sciences

Professor of Diet and Population Health

Louise Patten

NHS Clinical Commissioners

Chief Executive

Sally Warren

The King’s Fund

Director of Policy

Professor Lord Patel of Bradford OBE

Social Work England

Chair

Donna Kinnair

Royal College of Nursing

Chief Executive/General Secretary


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs: Misuse
Wednesday 20th May 2020

Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent people developing (a) alcohol and (b) drug dependencies during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Public Health England (PHE) published advice and information for the public on looking after their mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 outbreak, which recommends people avoid using alcohol and drugs. The guidance can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-the-public-on-mental-health-and-wellbeing/guidance-for-the-public-on-the-mental-health-and-wellbeing-aspects-of-coronavirus-covid-19

PHE continues to maintain the FRANK website and helpline, which provides a service for people who are concerned about their own or others’ drugs and alcohol consumption. The website can be accessed at the following link:

https://www.talktofrank.com/

Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak drug and alcohol treatment providers are continuing to support and treat people misusing drugs and alcohol.


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs: Misuse
Monday 28th October 2019

Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)

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 potential merits of a transfer to his Department of responsibility for drug and alcohol policy.

Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Transfer of responsibility for the lead on drugs policy from the Home Office to the Department of Health and Social Care is a recommendation of the Health and Social Care Committee’s recent inquiry on drugs. We will respond to the Committee’s recommendations shortly.


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks and Drugs: Misuse
Wednesday 12th September 2018

Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of deaths arising from alcohol and drug dependency.

Answered by Steve Brine

Public Health England (PHE) is working with local authorities, the National Health Service and prevention and treatment providers to support their work in reducing the number of deaths arising from alcohol and drug dependency. This includes supporting improvements to help increase the number of people with alcohol and drug problems that are in treatment, helping local authorities improve their drug-related death review process and providing further advice on the provision of the opioid-overdose antidote naloxone.

In 2017 PHE launched ‘Health Matters: Preventing drug misuse deaths’, an online resource for professionals which brings together the latest data and evidence, makes the case for effective public health interventions and highlights tools and resources that can facilitate local or national action. The blog can be viewed at the following link:

https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2017/03/01/health-matters-preventing-drug-misuse-deaths/