The Department is responsible for allocating the annual ring-fenced Public Health Grant (PHG) to local authorities each year. The PHG fell by £630 million (in 2021–22 prices), from £3.96 billion to £3.32 billion, over the period from 2015–16 to 2021–22.23 This has had inevitable consequences on funding for drug and alcohol treatment services, leaving services “on their knees” according to Dame Carol, author of the government’s independent review of drugs. Dame Carol told us that drug and alcohol services took one of the greatest reductions of all services affected by reductions in the PHG.24 The amount local authorities reported spending on drug and alcohol services fell by 27% in real terms from 2014–15 to 2021–22. Over the period from 2013–14 to 2020–21, the number of adults in England receiving treatment for problems with alcohol (and no other drugs) fell by 16%.25