The government’s failure to tackle alcohol harm in England has led to a serious public health crisis affecting millions of people, MPs have warned.
Problem drinking is fuelling violent crime and costing the NHS £25bn a year, with the number of deaths almost doubling in two decades, according to a damning report by the public accounts committee.
Ministers are accused of slashing funding for support services by hundreds of millions of pounds, breaking promises of action and ditching policies aimed at resolving the crisis.
There has been an “alarming” increase in alcohol-related deaths, which have jumped 89% in 20 years, with sharp rises since 2019. At the same time, the number of people able to get treatment for alcohol dependency has been falling, MPs found.
Dan Carden MP, the lead member of the inquiry, said: “Today’s report lays bare the lack of political will to address alcohol harm. The government’s record on alcohol harm is one of policies scrapped and promises broken.
“Alcohol harm is a deepening public health crisis that affects us all and it is wrong and unfair to believe that it is only alcohol-dependent drinkers who are affected.”
The cross-party committee said the government had underestimated the cost to the NHS and the economy because its data on how many people are struggling with alcohol problems was out of date.
Much more needs to be done, including working with local councils that provide treatment services to ensure they have the resources they need to offer people help, the report suggests.
MPs said 10 million people in England regularly exceed recommended guidelines on drinking, including 1.7 million who drink at higher-risk levels and 600,000 who are dependent.
Carden said: “Shamefully, it has been 11 years since the last government UK alcohol strategy. The measures set out in the 2012 strategy were, and remain, effective evidence-led health policies that prevent death, improve public health and alleviate pressures on our public services.
“The abject failure to deliver on promised initiatives has certainly contributed to tragic yet preventable levels of alcohol harm felt across the UK.”
The report says it is “surprising and disappointing” that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is not taking the crisis more seriously. The report adds: “A staggering 82% of the 600,000 dependent drinkers in England are not in treatment. This is despite success rates of about 60% and evidence that, on average, every £1 spent on treatment immediately delivers £3 of benefit and significantly more in the longer term.”
The report says the government relies on a 10-year-old estimate of the cost of alcohol harm, which is “out of date”, meaning it is “not even in a position to identify an appropriate response”.
The estimated £25bn annual cost to the NHS and wider society may not reflect the true scale of harm, it says.
The report adds: “Despite the widespread harm, there has been no alcohol-focused strategy since 2012 and the latest plans to publish one were abandoned in 2020.”
Grants to local authorities to fund public health services have fallen by £630m in real terms since 2015-16. “This has had inevitable consequences on funding for drug and alcohol treatment services,” the report says.
MPs welcomed a recent promise of £533m of funding for substance misuse services but warned that it was only a “short-term” fix.
The report also found there were “unnecessary barriers” to people accessing treatment, with “too many people … falling through the gaps”.
Dame Meg Hillier MP, the chair of the committee, said: “The harms from alcohol are appalling and the benefits of every £1 spent on treatment are immediate and obvious. It is linked to over 100 illnesses, mental disorder and suicide and to 42% of violent crime.
“But the government has had no alcohol strategy in place since 2012 and abandoned its latest effort in 2020, just as deaths from alcohol began to rise sharply.”
A government spokesperson said: “Alcohol misuse can ruin lives and destroy families, so we are taking serious action to support those most at risk.
“We’ve published a 10-year plan for tackling drug and alcohol-related harms and are investing an extra £532m between 2022/23 to 2024/25 to create over 50,000 places in drug and alcohol treatment centres with high-quality care.“
