2 2GM Tuesday September 15 2020 | the times
News
Problem drinking has surged during
the pandemic, the Royal College of
Psychiatrists has warned.
The number of people drinking who
are at higher risk has almost doubled
since just before the lockdown, its
analysis suggests.
Data collected by Public Health
England showed the prevalence was at
almost a fifth (19 per cent) in June, up
from 10.8 per cent in February. The
lockdown was imposed on March 23.
High-risk drinkers are those scoring
eight or more on PHE’s ten-point clini-
cal questionnaire which assesses the
amount of alcohol consumed and
frequency, and levels of harm and
dependence.
Using population estimates from the
Office for National Statistics, the
college said that in June more than 8.
million people were drinking heavily, a
rise from about 4.8 million four months
previously. Adrian James, the college
president, called on the government toNumber of problem drinkers
rises to 8.4m after lockdown
Katie Gibbons commit “substantial” investment in
public health to prevent more lives
from being “needlessly lost” to
addiction.
An estimated £374 million needs to
be invested to help local authorities ef-
fectively treat and reduce addiction, ac-
cording to the college’s report.
The sharp increase in problem drink-
ing is coupled with a rise in people seek-
ing help for addiction to opiates. Data
from the National Drug Treatment
Monitoring System statistics shows
new adult cases in April up by about a
fifth on the same time last year and at
their highest level since 2015.
The college is warning that cuts
made since 2013-14 mean that the
higher numbers of people needing help
could miss out on life-saving treatment.
Dr James added: “Addiction services
have been starved of funding in recent
years meaning many are not able to
treat and care for the huge numbers of
people who are drinking at high risk.
“More lives will be needlessly lost to
addiction unless the government actsnow and commits to substantial invest-
ment in public health, including adult
addiction services, in the spending
review. I urge the government to imple-
ment the recommendations in our re-
port which would see mental health
services expand to be the biggest in
Europe, with a much-needed focus on
tackling inequalities.”
Professor Julia Sinclair, chairwoman
of the college’s addictions faculty, said:
“Covid-19 has shown just how
stretched, under-resourced and ill-
equipped addiction services are to treat
the growing numbers of vulnerable
people living with this complex illness.
”There are now only five NHS inpa-
tient units in the country and no re-
source anywhere in my region to admit
people who are alcohol dependent with
co-existing mental illness.
“Drug-related deaths and alcohol-
related hospital admissions were
already at all-time highs before Covid-- I fear that unless the government
acts quickly, we will see these numbers
rise exponentially.”
Criminals who attack emergency
workers are to face up to two years in
jail under sentencing reforms to be
announced tomorrow.
Ministers plan to double the existing
12-month maximum jail term for
attacking a police officer after a sum-
mer in which dozens of officers have
been injured during clashes with revel-
lers at street parties.
Tougher sentencing for violent
offenders comes while the Ministry of
Justice plans to provide in-cell comput-
er tablets for prisoners. More than half
of prisons have telephones in
cells and now officials want prisonersstep that should never be taken lightly.
Having carefully studied the UK internal
market bill it is not clear to me why it is
necessary to do so.”
Mr Wright said that he was “pro-
foundly disturbed by what’s going on”.
He told the BBC: “This is far from just
another day in parliament.”
The former Tory chief whip Andrew
Mitchell said he would vote for the
government last night but added: “I’ve
voted in ways in this House that I have
regretted in the past... but I don’t believe
I’ve ever gone into a lobby to vote in a
way that I knew was wrong and I won’t
be doing it on this occasion either.”
Mr Johnson’s plans have been criti-
cised by all five of Britain’s living former
prime ministers after David Cameron
said yesterday that he had “grave mis-
givings” about the move.
The government also suffered its first
resignation after the Conservative MP
Rehman Chishti stepped down as an
envoy, saying that he would not be able
to vote for the bill as a “matter of
principle”. He added: “If we give our
word we must honour it.”
Senior rebels said that the plan was to
ratchet up pressure on the prime
minister before next week’s discussion of
the bill at committee stage. “We want to
send a very clear message to the prime
minister that it cannot become law in its
current form,” a senior MP said.
A government spokesman said last
night that Mr Johnson welcomed the
passing of the “vital” legislation. ThePlease note, some sections of The Times are
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What stands out from Sasha Swire’s memoirs
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THE WEATHER
1091442422429252222211199BBC narrows
gender pay gap
The BBC “rich list”
will show today that
the gender split of
presenters earning
above £150,000 is 55:
in favour of men,
against 60:40 last year.
The figure has been
helped by the exit of
high earners, including
Chris Evans and John
Humphrys. Page 4
Mother’s grief
at arena inquiry
Samantha Leczkowski,
from Leeds, told the
inquiry into the 2017
Manchester Arena
attack that she had
tried to save her
daughter, Sorrell, 14,
who had been near to
Salman Abedi when he
detonated his bomb. “I
feel that I let her
down,” she said. Page 9Tinned produce
‘better quality’
Frozen and canned
fruit and vegetables
are often better and
tastier than fresh
versions, according to
Which?. The consumer
group said that it often
took weeks for fresh
produce to reach
shops, during which
time it would have lost
nutrients. Page 19Chelsea repay
investment
Frank Lampard’s
expensively rebuilt
Chelsea team
defeated Brighton 3-
in their first game of
the new Premier
League season. Earlier
Wolverhampton
Wanderers had
pushed aside a
lacklustre Sheffield
United 2-0. Pages 61-Today’s
highlights
Listen for free DAB | Smart speaker | Online at times.radio | Times Radio app
7.20am Priti Patel, home secretary, right
10.50am The Conservative MP Luke Evans on his
campaign against digitally altered social media posts
2.40pm The US financial expert Alvin Hall
discusses his new podcast Driving the Green Book
5.30pm Leading by Example with
Kajal Odedra, executive director of change.org10.30pm The former Conservative adviser
Salma Shah and the Labour List editorSienna Rodgers on tomorrow’s front pages
Trump clash
over wildfires
President Trump and
his Democratic rival
Joe Biden have clashed
over the cause of
wildfires on America’s
west coast. Mr Trump
said in California that
the forests should be
better managed, but
fended off questions on
whether climate change
played a part. Page 28
Rival attempts
G4S takeover
G4S, the world’s biggest
security company, is
facing a hostile
takeover move from
Gardaworld, a
Canadian rival
controlled by a private
equity firm. It has made
an all-cash £2.96 billion
offer after three
previous approaches
were rejected. Page 33 is now studying how restrictions might
work. Some in government hope that
stories about shortages will reduce
demand from the “worried well”.
Hospitals have said that the lack of
tests was hampering the ability of the
NHS to recover. Chris Hopson, chief
executive of the hospitals’ group NHS
Providers, said that health bosses were
“working in the dark”.
Hospital chiefs “from Bristol, Leeds
and London all raised concerns over
the weekend about the lack of testing
availability leading to greater levels of
staff absence,” he said. “Trusts need to
know if they should try to create or
re-establish their own testing facilities.”
Mr Hopson added that “throughout
the pandemic, the government has
always seemed more concerned with
managing the political implications of
operational problems rather than being
open and honest about them”.
Downing Street also confirmed
yesterday that it was considering
compulsory isolation for those with
symptoms and their families. A spokes-
man said: “We’ve always said we keep the
issue of whether or not that [isolation]
should be mandatory under review.”
Boris Johnson’s spokesman said: “We
are working hard to increase capacity.
We have recently announced a new lab
in Leicestershire, which will process
around 50,000 antigen tests a day in the
next few weeks, and we have also
opened a new lab at Newport.”
Coronavirus reports, pages 10-prime minister is understood to have
spoken to Tory peers before the bill
moves to the Lords. The Tory MP Sir
Roger Gale, who did not vote with the
government and risks being suspended
from the parliamentary party, said that
he had yet to hear from Tory whips.
‘Gun on the table’, pages 6-continued from page 1
Tory rebellioncontinued from page 1
Carry on turning Testing shortagesDespite its majority, or perhaps
because of it, the government has
repeatedly had to bow to pressure
from backbenchers in the past year.Exam results Last month the
government scrapped grades
awarded by an algorithm and gave
GCSE and A-level students their
teacher-predicted scores instead.
Tory MPs said that high-performing
students in disadvantaged schools
were more likely to have been
downgraded by the algorithm.Huawei Ministers backtracked over
their decision to allow the Chinese
telecoms company to build parts of
its 5G network in the face of
opposition from dozens of Tories.
The government said all Huawei kit
should be removed from the
network within seven years.Free school meals The government
extended free school meals
vouchers over the summer after a
campaign by the footballer Marcus
Rashford gained support from many
of its own backbenchers.Jail term doubles for attacking police
Richard Ford Home Correspondent to have access to the devices.
The proposal to double the maxi-
mum sentence for attacking a police
officer or other emergency workers
such as firefighters, prison officers and
paramedics comes 22 months after the
maximum term was increased from six
months to 12 months. The average jail
sentence last year for assaults such as
spitting, pushing or shoving emergency
workers was 2.6 months, although
those convicted of more serious offen-
ces are likely to have got longer.
Robert Buckland, QC, the justice sec-
retary, will pay tribute to emergency
workers today. “The debt of gratitude
we owe to our emergency workers has
never been greater,” he will say.The reforms will also include whole-
life tariffs in exceptional cases for those
convicted of the premeditated murder
of children and a similar maximum
sentence for those aged 18 to 21 convict-
ed of murder in exceptional circum-
stances, such as terrorist attacks.
6 A man has been arrested on suspi-
cion of attempted murder after a police
officer was stabbed in a late-night
attack in Eastbourne. Officers had been
called to the scene at about 1am yester-
day. The stabbed officer managed to
treat the wound to his leg himself while
two colleagues captured the 42-year-
old suspect. Jo Shiner, chief constable of
Sussex, said that it demonstrated the
risks facing officers on the front line.