§ Mr. Kirkwoodasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list Government expenditure on combating (a) drug abuse, (b) alcohol abuse and (c) smoking, for the latest year for which figures are available; and if he will give the latest estimate of the number of deaths resulting from each.
§ Mr. WhitneyThe table gives the number of deaths in England and Wales in 1984 where the underlying cause of death was stated to be drug dependence or non-dependent abuse of drugs or was a cause associated with alcohol consumption. Except for deaths due to toxic effects of alcohol, figures are not readily available for accidental deaths with any mention of alcohol. However, it is estimated that in 1984 at least one road death in four was associated with alcohol ie about 1,200 road accident deaths in England and Wales.
The Royal College of Physicians estimated in 1981 that at least 100,000 deaths per year in the United Kingdom were related to smoking.
Expenditure on preventive activities by the Department in 1985–86 was as follows:
365W
£ million (a) Illegal Drugs: DHSS education and information campaign 2 (b) Alcohol—regional education campaigns, publications and work in schools undertaken by the Health Education Council 0.4 Preventive and educational work by Alcohol Concern 0.3 (c) Tobacco — Health Education Council smoking education programme 2 DHSS teenage smoking campaign 0.65 Publicity and education by Action on Smoking and Health 0.15 Research into prevention 0.1
Deaths associated with drug abuse and alcohol consumption England and Wales 1984 ICD* Cause of death Number of deaths 304 Drug dependence 102 305.2 to 305.9 Non-dependent abuse of drugs 25 291 Alcoholic psychoses 13 303 Alcohol dependence syndrome 97 305.0 Non-dependent abuse of alcohol 108 425.5 Alcoholic cardiomyopathy 58 571.0 to 571.3 Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, alcohol reported as cause 951 571.4 to 571.9† Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, alcohol not specifically reported as cause 1,329 980 Toxic effect of alcohol 102 * International Classification of Diseases. 9th revision. † Some deaths in this category are thought to be associated with excessive alcohol consumption.