The Government's Alcohol Strategy, published on 23 March 2012, brings together the Government's approach to reducing the incidence of alcohol-related disease and crime.

The strategy includes a range of actions such as:

proposals to tackle the availability of cheap alcohol;

an industry pledge through the responsibility deal to take 1 billion units out of the market by 2015;

building on the introduction of a ring—fenced public health grant to local authorities in England through greater use of brief interventions, specialised alcohol treatment, and alcohol liaison nurses within hospital emergency departments; and

in England, we are funding an alcohol check within the NHS Health Check for adults aged between 40 and 74 for the first time from April 2013.

The Government sought views on a number of measures set out in the Alcohol Strategy, in a consultation published by the Home Office on 28 November, which concluded on 6 February. We will set out a response in due course.

Dame Sally Davies, the chief medical officer, will oversee a review of the alcohol guidelines to ensure they are based on the best possible evidence.

Public Health England (PHE) is the new Executive agency of the Department of Health with the role of supporting local authorities responsible for public health. PHE will provide data, evidence and support to local authorities and national health service partners to enable them to reduce the harmful impact from alcohol in local communities.

PHE will also encourage greater use of effective interventions, such as brief interventions, alcohol interventions in secondary NHS care and the treatment of dependent drinkers.

FRANK, the Government's drugs information and advice service, includes information on the risks of the use of methamphetamine. The Department obtains expert medical advice to ensure that the information on FRANK is as accurate and up to date as possible.

Information on the effects of methamphetamine use, as well as other illicit and licit substances, is contained in the document published by the Department in August 2011: ‘A summary of the health harms of drugs: A guide to the risks and harms associated with substance misuse’. A copy of this document has already been placed in the Library.

Data on the cost of treating users of individual drugs, such as methamphetamine, are not centrally collected.

The Home Office has not made any such estimate. Information on the cost of the use of narcotics by employees is not held centrally.

We have revised the earlier (2007) estimate of cost to the National Health Service of around £2.7 billion per year to an estimate of around £3.5 billion per year at 2009-10 costs. This was published as part of our written evidence to the Health Select Committee’s recent inquiry on the Government's alcohol strategy.

The following table summarises Home Office spend on public awareness campaigns on alcohol, drugs and domestic violence in each of the last five years. The figures relate to the cost of television, cinema, radio, print, posters and online media, and exclude VAT, production costs and agency fees.

I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop) on 24 May 2012, Official Report, column 859W.

The estimated cost to the national health service of treating smoking-related illnesses in 2006-07 was £2.7 billion. Further information about NHS costs relating to smoking is set out in paragraph 2.10 of “Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Tobacco Control Plan for England”, published in March 2011. This document has already been placed in the Library.

The Department estimates that alcohol misuse cost the NHS in England about £3.5 billion in 2009-10. This figure relates to all costs incurred by the NHS, including hospital admissions, outpatient visits, accident and emergency attendances, general practitioner consultations and other costs.

The cost of meeting the health needs in England and Wales arising from the use of Class A drugs was £488 million in 2003-04, as estimated in “Measuring different aspects of problem drug use: methodological developments, Home Office Online Report 16/06”. Separate figures for England, or regions within England, are not available.

Additionally, Drug Treatment Outcomes Research Study, published in December 2009, assessed the outcomes, costs and benefits of drug treatment in England and estimated that in the absence of treatment the average annual cost to health and social care services would be £4,543 per person, structured treatment reduces this cost by 31% (£3,120).