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Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate her Department has made of the number of people in (a) rural and (b) non-rural areas with (i) drug and (ii) alcohol dependency (A) in absolute terms and (B) per head of population; and if she will make a statement. [85881]

Caroline Flint: The Department’s 2004 alcohol needs assessment research project is the first alcohol needs assessment in England conducted on a national scale, and reports there are 1.1 million people in England who meet the criteria of alcohol dependence. We are unable to supply a breakdown of rural and non-rural areas, however regional breakdown is shown in table 1.

Table 1
Region	Total
North East	83,356
North West	145,054
Yorkshire and Humber	163,889
East Midlands	42,656
West Midlands	126,658
East of England	95,808
London	217,429
South East	183,611
South West	95,257
Total for England	1,132,074

The Department does not hold data for the numbers of those with a drug dependency in the format requested but we can provide the following data on the prevalence of drug dependence.

Data on drug dependence is available from the survey Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adults (aged 16 to 74) Living in Private Households (in Great Britain) carried out in 2000, by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

We are unable to break down the prevalence by rural or non-rural areas, however the latest data we have available from the ONS survey is shown in table 2. This provides the prevalence of drug dependence of adults aged 16-74 by NHS regional office area, based on responses to five questions, about drug use in the year prior to interview.

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Table 2: Prevalence of drug dependence of adults( 1) , by NHS regional office area and sex (rate per thousand population), 2000
Rate per thousand in past year
	Northern and Yorkshire	Trent	West Midlands	North West	Eastern	London	South East	South West	England
Women
Dependence on:
Cannabis	18	4	1	14	24	46	13	1	16
Amphetamines	1	2	—	4	5	—	2	—	2
Cocaine	1	—	—	4	—	1	1	—	1
Crack	1	—	—	—	—	2	—	—	0
Ecstasy	5	1	—	—	9	2	—	—	2
Heroin/Methadone	1	4	—	3	—	—	—	1	1
Tranquillisers	2	2	—	4	3	4	3	3	3
Volatile substances	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Cannabis only	17	—	1	14	16	43	11	1	14
Other drug(s) with or without cannabis dependence	7	10	—	10	12	7	5	4	7
Any drug dependence	24	10	1	25	27	50	16	5	21
Bases	528	414	405	559	435	490	722	432	3,985
Men
Dependence on:
Cannabis	31	32	30	68	27	37	58	51	43
Amphetamines	7	—	2	1	1	13	8	—	5
Cocaine	—	—	8	—	13	4	7	2	4
Crack	—	—	7	—	—	4	2	—	2
Ecstasy	3	10	10	12	4	5	17	9	9
Heroin/Methadone	1	2	7	4	—	4	—	—	2
Tranquillisers	1	—	—	7	—	4	—	—	2
Volatile substances	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Cannabis only	22	27	22	54	23	33	41	39	34
Other drug(s) with or without cannabis dependence	13	12	18	20	19	19	23	11	17
Any drug dependence	34	39	40	74	41	52	65	51	51
Bases	430	332	333	427	388	385	578	356	3,229
All adults
Dependence on:
Cannabis	25	18	16	41	26	41	36	25	30
Amphetamines	4	1	1	3	3	7	5	—	3
Cocaine	1	—	4	2	7	3	4	1	3
Crack	1	—	3	—	—	3	1	—	1
Ecstasy	4	6	5	6	7	4	9	5	6
Heroin/Methadone	1	3	3	3	—	2	—	1	2
Tranquillisers	2	1	—	6	1	4	2	1	2
Volatile substances	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Cannabis only	19	13	12	34	19	38	26	20	24
Other drug(s) with or without cannabis dependence	10	11	9	15	15	13	14	7	12
Any drug dependence	29	24	21	49	34	51	41	27	36
Bases	958	746	738	986	823	875	1,300	788	7,214
‘—’denotes no cases 0 denotes values less than 0.5 per cent. (1) Adults aged 16-74 Note: The sample for England has been subdivided into eight NHS regional office areas, which should not be mistaken for the current Government office region structure. The sample sizes in a number of regions are quite small and there was differential non-response between regions. Source: Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adults Living in Private Households, 2000. Office for National Statistics carried out on behalf of Department of Health, the Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales.

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