Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will introduce hypothecated taxes for (a) smoking products, (b) vaping products and (c) alcohol to pay for health services related to those products.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government already has duties in place on tobacco and alcohol which help to fund important public services, including the NHS, education and defence.
The Government has also delivered on its commitment to review the outdated and complex alcohol duty system and introduced the biggest reform of alcohol duties for 140 years. As of 1 August 2023, all alcohol is now taxed by strength, putting public health at the heart of alcohol duty. This is helping to target problem drinking by taxing products associated with alcohol-related harm at a higher rate of duty.
With regard to vaping, the UK Government thinks there is a strong case to take action to reduce the affordability of vapes and is continuing to consider options, including a new duty, to achieve this.
The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the tax policy making cycle and Budget process.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will raise duty on (a) tobacco products, (b) vapes and (c) alcohol in the forthcoming Budget.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government already has duties in place on tobacco and alcohol which help to fund important public services, including the NHS, education and defence.
The Government has also delivered on its commitment to review the outdated and complex alcohol duty system and introduced the biggest reform of alcohol duties for 140 years. As of 1 August 2023, all alcohol is now taxed by strength, putting public health at the heart of alcohol duty. This is helping to target problem drinking by taxing products associated with alcohol-related harm at a higher rate of duty.
With regard to vaping, the UK Government thinks there is a strong case to take action to reduce the affordability of vapes and is continuing to consider options, including a new duty, to achieve this.
The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the tax policy making cycle and Budget process.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the main causes of surgical fires and burns across NHS England.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Surgical fires and burns occur in, on, or around a patient undergoing surgery. Risk factors include use of ignition sources, for example, electrical surgical equipment and lasers, and fuel sources, for example, alcohol preparation solutions that are accidentally allowed to pool on or under the patient.
Any unexpected or unintended incident which could have or did lead to harm to one or more patients can be recorded on the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service, to support local and national learning. This would include surgical fires or burns. Providers are encouraged to foster a positive safety culture among their staff, and to ensure an appropriate local focus on incident recognition, recording, and response.
Recording onto LFPSE is a voluntary process, except where reporting to NHS England fulfils duties for other statutory mandatory requirements, such as reporting notifiable incidents to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). NHS England shares all such data with the CQC. Notifiable incidents include events resulting in serious harm or the death of a service user, and therefore the most serious surgical fires or burns are subject to mandatory reporting. However, providers are encouraged to record all patient safety incidents, irrespective of the level of harm, to support local and national learning.
We are informed by NHS England that no assessment has been made of the impact of surgical fires or burns on the length of patients' hospital stays.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of surgical fires and burns on the length of patients' hospital stays.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Surgical fires and burns occur in, on, or around a patient undergoing surgery. Risk factors include use of ignition sources, for example, electrical surgical equipment and lasers, and fuel sources, for example, alcohol preparation solutions that are accidentally allowed to pool on or under the patient.
Any unexpected or unintended incident which could have or did lead to harm to one or more patients can be recorded on the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service, to support local and national learning. This would include surgical fires or burns. Providers are encouraged to foster a positive safety culture among their staff, and to ensure an appropriate local focus on incident recognition, recording, and response.
Recording onto LFPSE is a voluntary process, except where reporting to NHS England fulfils duties for other statutory mandatory requirements, such as reporting notifiable incidents to the Care Quality Commission (CQC). NHS England shares all such data with the CQC. Notifiable incidents include events resulting in serious harm or the death of a service user, and therefore the most serious surgical fires or burns are subject to mandatory reporting. However, providers are encouraged to record all patient safety incidents, irrespective of the level of harm, to support local and national learning.
We are informed by NHS England that no assessment has been made of the impact of surgical fires or burns on the length of patients' hospital stays.
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, if she will make an assessment of the harm caused by alcohol use; and what steps she taking to address that harm.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is aware of and continues to act to reduce levels of harm caused by alcohol use. The Department continues to promote the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ Low Risk Drinking Guidelines in England through online platforms, and local authorities continue to promote them as part of their public health duties. This provides the public with the most up-to-date scientific information to help people make informed decisions about their own drinking, including the health harms of alcohol consumption. The Government has also published guidance and worked with the alcohol industry to ensure that alcohol labels reflect these guidelines for drinks produced after September 2019. This ensures consumers have the best available information at the point of purchase or consumption.
The Government takes a wide-ranging approach to addressing alcohol-related harms, including the establishment of alcohol care teams in the 25% acute hospitals in England with the greatest need through the NHS Long Term Plan, and improvements to the alcohol and drug treatment system through the 10-year Drug Strategy.
Although the primary focus of the strategy is drugs, implementation of the strategy is also benefitting people seeking alcohol treatment, through mechanisms such as new commissioning standards and plans to build back the drug and alcohol treatment workforce. £532 million of additional funding is being invested in local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England between 2022/23 and 2024/25, to increase the number of people in substance misuse treatment by 54,500 over this period.
The Department launched its drug and alcohol treatment press partnership campaign on 18 January 2024. The content in the campaign will aim to build awareness of the effectiveness of drug and alcohol treatment, how it can help and how to access it. The Press Partnership is a programme run by the Department which works with over 350 national, regional, local and multicultural print newspapers, with a reach of over 34% of adults in England, or 17.7 million.
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, if she will take steps to increase awareness of (a) alcohol harm and (b) support services for alcohol abuse.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is aware of and continues to act to reduce levels of harm caused by alcohol use. The Department continues to promote the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ Low Risk Drinking Guidelines in England through online platforms, and local authorities continue to promote them as part of their public health duties. This provides the public with the most up-to-date scientific information to help people make informed decisions about their own drinking, including the health harms of alcohol consumption. The Government has also published guidance and worked with the alcohol industry to ensure that alcohol labels reflect these guidelines for drinks produced after September 2019. This ensures consumers have the best available information at the point of purchase or consumption.
The Government takes a wide-ranging approach to addressing alcohol-related harms, including the establishment of alcohol care teams in the 25% acute hospitals in England with the greatest need through the NHS Long Term Plan, and improvements to the alcohol and drug treatment system through the 10-year Drug Strategy.
Although the primary focus of the strategy is drugs, implementation of the strategy is also benefitting people seeking alcohol treatment, through mechanisms such as new commissioning standards and plans to build back the drug and alcohol treatment workforce. £532 million of additional funding is being invested in local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England between 2022/23 and 2024/25, to increase the number of people in substance misuse treatment by 54,500 over this period.
The Department launched its drug and alcohol treatment press partnership campaign on 18 January 2024. The content in the campaign will aim to build awareness of the effectiveness of drug and alcohol treatment, how it can help and how to access it. The Press Partnership is a programme run by the Department which works with over 350 national, regional, local and multicultural print newspapers, with a reach of over 34% of adults in England, or 17.7 million.
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, if she will have discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the introduction of a hypothecated alcohol tax.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care regularly engages with HM Treasury on issues of taxation in relation to public health. The Government has already delivered on its commitment to review the outdated and complex alcohol duty system and introduced the biggest reform of alcohol duties for 140 years. As of 1 August 2023, all alcohol is now taxed by strength, putting public health at the heart of alcohol duty. This is helping to target problem drinking by taxing products associated with alcohol-related harm at a higher rate of duty.
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, if she will take steps to reduce the alcohol content in drinks on sale in retail settings.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the 2019 publication, Advancing our Heath: Prevention in the 2020s, the Department is working with industry to deliver a significant increase in the availability of no- and low-alcohol products. Current guidance for the use of low-alcohol descriptors, published by the Department in 2018, sets out that “alcohol-free” products should have an alcohol by volume (ABV) content of no more than 0.05% and “low-alcohol” products should have an ABV of no more than 1.2%.
In support of the commitment to increase the availability of these products across retail and hospitality settings, the Government published a consultation on updating this guidance in September 2023. A response will be published in due course.
The Government has also delivered on its commitment to review the outdated and complex alcohol duty system and introduced the biggest reform of alcohol duties in 140 years. As of 1 August 2023, all alcohol is now taxed by strength. This is helping to target problem drinking by taxing products associated with higher alcohol-related harm at a higher rate of duty.
The new system incentivises the production and consumption of lower strength products by introducing a reduced rate of duty for products of a lower ABV. Additionally, all draught products below 8.5 per cent ABV sold in containers of 20 litres or more now receive a reduced rate of duty, incentivising consumption of lower strength products in pubs.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has he made of the potential reasons for the increase in people accessing alcohol support services post-covid.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are several potential reasons for the 2% increase in people attending alcohol-only treatment in 2022/23, the period for which the most recent data is available.
In December 2021, the Government published its landmark 10-year drug strategy, backed by record funding. Although the primary focus of the strategy is drugs, commissioning and delivery of drug and alcohol treatment services are integrated in England. This means that implementation of the strategy is also benefitting people seeking alcohol treatment, through mechanisms such as new commissioning standards and plans to build back the workforce. £532 million of additional funding is being invested in local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England between 2022/23 and 2024/25, to increase the number of people in substance misuse treatment by 54,500 over this period.
Additionally, the 2021 Public Health England publication, Monitoring alcohol consumption and harm during the COVID-19 pandemic, found that increases in alcohol consumption since the beginning of the pandemic tended to be among people who were already heavy drinkers before this period. This report is available at the following link:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60f01076d3bf7f568a2d93e3/Alcohol_and_COVID_report.pdf
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 she has set targets for the (a) reduction of (i) drug and (ii) alcohol use and (b) number of people receiving treatment for related addictions.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government published a 10-year drug strategy in December 2021 which sets out three core priorities: cutting off drug supply, creating a world class treatment and recovery system, and achieving a generational shift in demand for drugs. The strategy aims to reduce crime, drug related deaths, harm, and overall drug use and is backed by significant new investment. The Government has invested an additional £780 million in drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services, of which £532 million is dedicated to rebuilding local authority commissioned substance misuse treatment services in England. The drug strategy includes a specific target of getting 54,500 more people in drug and alcohol treatment between 2022/23 and 2024/25. Success is being measured against a system of local and national outcomes frameworks. More information on the strategy is available at the following link:
Delivery of the drugs strategy is a cross-government priority; the Joint Combatting Drugs Unit (JCDU) is a cross-Government team, based in the Home Office, that was set up to coordinate the drug strategy delivery across all relevant Government departments. The Department of Health and Social Care works closely with the JCDU to work to achieve the aims of the drug strategy.
No specific targets have been set for the reduction of alcohol use in England; however, the United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ low-risk drinking guidelines recommends that adults consume no more than 14 units of alcohol per week. According to the 2021 Health Survey for England, around 80% of adults in England drink within these guidelines. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, the Government is investing £27 million to establish alcohol care teams in the 25% of acute hospitals in England with the greatest need. These specialist teams identify alcohol dependent patients admitted to hospital for any reason, start them on specialist treatment as inpatients, and facilitate them into community-based substance misuse treatment upon discharge.