Alcohol treatment services: Public Accounts Committee Report

That this House welcomes the Public Accounts Committee's report on Alcohol treatment services and shares its concerns; is dismayed that the Department for Health and Social Care appears to lack sufficient understanding of the total cost of alcohol harm; suggests that, in establishing its evidence base, the Department should take account of the widely supported Alcohol Charter of 2018 and comprehensive report by the Commission on Alcohol Harm 2020; is alarmed that alcohol-related hospital admissions and alcohol deaths have been rising while access to treatment has been falling and addiction psychiatry has all but disappeared; recognises that treatment services for alcohol dependency show success rates of around 60 per cent and deliver an estimated £3 benefit immediately for every £1 invested; and calls on the Government to respond to the Committee in a timely fashion and to direct the Department for Health and Social Care to enact swiftly the six recommendations in the Report before many more lives are needlessly blighted and lost.