Almost 1,500 years of life were lost due to alcohol-related deaths in Blackburn with Darwen in 2020, new figures suggest.

It comes after the number of people who died from excessive alcohol consumption across England soared during the coronavirus pandemic.

Office for Health and Improvement Disparities figures show premature deaths from alcohol-related conditions led to a potential 1,494 years of life being lost in Blackburn with Darwen in 2020 – though this was down from 1,545 in 2019.

Of these, 1,109 (74 per cent) were as a result of alcohol-related deaths among men, and 385 (26 per cent) among women.

Across England, 293,980 years of life were lost due to alcohol-related conditions in males in 2020.

This fell to 138,060 years among females, though both are at their highest level since records began in 2016.

Potential years of life lost are calculated by multiplying the total number of alcohol-related deaths occurring at each age by the number of remaining years left to live, according to life expectancy estimates.

Alcohol-related deaths include those specifically caused by alcohol, such as alcoholic liver disease, and diseases made more likely by extensive alcohol consumption, including heart disease or various types of cancer.

Cllr Damian Talbot, Executive Member for Public Health, Prevention and Wellbeing, said: “These figures are obviously concerning and we are still seeing far too many deaths caused by alcohol in the borough, though the number of alcohol-related deaths now seems to be stable after a small decrease last year.

“We strongly believe more needs to be done at Government level to prevent alcohol related harm and as a local authority we are doing everything we can to do this in Blackburn with Darwen.

“We are actively working on this issue via our alcohol strategy and our joint work with our substance misuse service partners Spark.

“One overriding factor affecting alcohol treatment services however is the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In 2020 to 2021, most services had to restrict face-to-face contact, which had a major effect on the types of interventions that service users received.

“This, and other changes to service provision during the pandemic, may have affected the data in last year’s report.

“People’s social habits were forced to change as people faced lockdowns and there is no doubt that this contributed to a general increase in alcohol consumption during the pandemic which has had an effect on the figures.

“I would hope that as we continue to exit the pandemic society will begin to return to normality and this will impact positively.

“We know that when people access our local alcohol service treatments, the outcomes can be really positive, and I would encourage anyone who is struggling with their alcohol intake to reach out and get the help they need.”