Liam Byrne – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liam Byrne on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of children who are the children of alcoholics.

Jane Ellison

The main source for estimates of children of alcohol-misusing parents comes from a 2009 research paper which provided new estimates of the number of children (under 16 years) of substance misusing parents. The report found:

– 6% living with a dependent drinker (over 700,000 children);

– Around 26,000 babies under the age of one in England living with a parent who would be classified as a ‘dependent’ drinker.