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Public Health (England)

Of course, I pretty much know what the National Treatment Agency does. It is responsible for supporting the development of drug treatment services, for improving the professionalism of drugs staff, and for prevention. I was trying to draw the hon. Gentleman’s attention to the fact that substance misuse occupies a different position in the NHS from public health. As I said, in future we may think differently about the treatment of drug misuse, but it is wrong to make a simple comparison between the work of the national treatment agency and that of drug action teams in the area of public health.