Drug and alcohol treatment services in England are funded by local authorities from the public health grant, which does not include European Union funding streams. Individual drug and alcohol treatment services may have applied for and received EU funding, however this data is not collected centrally.

As the Prime Minister has made clear, while the United Kingdom remains a member of the EU, current EU funding arrangements continue unchanged. It will be for the Government under the new Prime Minister to begin the negotiation to leave, and set out arrangements for those schemes currently in receipt of EU funds.

The number of people of each gender over the age of 50 who have been in drug or alcohol treatment for the last five years can be accessed in the following link:

https://www.ndtms.net/Publications/AnnualReports.aspx

Source: National Drug Treatment Monitoring System

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the local need for drug treatment and commissioning services to meet that need. This involves developing services that can help people with a range of drug problems; which can also respond to emerging problems, such as new psychoactive substances.

Public Health England works with local authorities to support them in commissioning alcohol and drug services, providing guidance and materials, bespoke data, value for money tools, topical briefings and advice on good practice. This includes guidance on new psychoactive substances for substance misuse commissioners, including a toolkit which can be found at:

http://www.nta.nhs.uk/uploads/nps-a-toolkit-for-substance-misuse-commissioners.pdf

The report by Professor Louisa Degenhardt et al. published in The Lancet, Volume 382, Issue 9904, 9–15 November 2013, at pages 1564–1574 on “Global burden of disease attributable to illicit drug use and dependence: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010” found that suicide as a risk of amphetamine dependence accounted worldwide for 854,000 Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) (291,000–1,791,000), as a risk of opioid dependence for 671,000 DALYs (329 000–1,730,000), and as a risk of cocaine dependence for 324,000 DALYs (109,000–682,000):

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)61530-5/abstract

The cross-Government National Suicide Prevention Strategy, Preventing Suicide in England (2012), highlights the higher risk of suicide for people who misuse drugs and recommends local interventions through multi-agency partnerships to address this risk:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/suicide-prevention-strategy-for-england

We welcome the independent Mental Health Taskforce recommendation that local areas should have local multi-agency suicide prevention plans in place by 2017.

As a Departmental Expert Committee the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood Tissues and Organs (SaBTO) does not undertake or commission research directly. SaBTO is carrying out a review of selection criteria for donation of blood, tissues and cells. The review will be wide-ranging and comprehensive and will include evidence relating to the risks of blood-borne infections in people who have previously injected drugs or received money or drugs for sex. Should any gaps be identified in the course of the review, SaBTO could make research recommendations.

The UK Chief Medical Officers’ alcohol guidelines give the public the latest and most up to date scientific information so that they can make informed decisions about their own drinking.

It is however important that the new guidelines are clear and understandable and take into account the responses to the consultation.

We will publish the final guidelines and the government response to the consultation as soon as possible.

Hazardous drinking is a pattern of alcohol consumption carrying risks of physical and psychological harm to the individual. Harmful drinking denotes the most hazardous use of alcohol, at which damage to health is likely.

Data is not collected centrally for the numbers of harmful and hazardous alcohol drinkers by parliamentary constituency.

The published table 9.3 in the Health and Social Care Information Centre, Adult psychiatric morbidity in England, 2007 Results of a household survey provides the most recent prevalence estimates of hazardous and harmful drinking in the past year.

The report is available at:

http://www.hscic.gov.uk/catalogue/PUB02931/adul-psyc-morb-res-hou-sur-eng-2007-rep.pdf

The most recent estimates of increasing and higher risk drinking for local authority areas were published in 2012 (based on 2009 data) in the Public Health England (PHE), Local Alcohol Profiles for England (LAPE).

The PHE LAPE is available at:

http://www.lape.org.uk/downloads/LAPE_LA_Dataset_PHE_280514_FINAL.xlsx

Section 2 of the Health Act 2009 as amended by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 requires local authorities to have regard to the National Health Service constitution in performing their health service functions which include the commissioning of services to treat dependence on drugs and alcohol.

Public Health England supports local authorities in their public health functions by providing a range of supportive guidance and materials, as well as bespoke data, value for money tools, topical briefings, and advice on good practice.

The Department distributes funding to local authorities through the Public Health Grant to carry out their public health functions. The grant conditions include a requirement for each local authority to have regard to the need to improve the take up of, and outcomes from, its drug and alcohol misuse treatment services. Local authorities are also required to report annual expenditure on drug and alcohol services.

Public Health England (PHE) is engaged in a work programme which aims to reduce alcohol-related harm to individuals, families and society. PHE works closely with local authorities to support their work of assessing local alcohol-related need and commissioning services and support to meet that need, including identification and brief advice, alcohol treatment and helping ensure that young people’s substance misuse services target vulnerable young people.

PHE is producing a report on the harm alcohol causes to people other than the drinker, in collaboration with governments in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This report will look at the impact of alcohol on others, including the children of parents with alcohol problems. It is due to published this year.

PHE will also provide estimates of the number of children likely to be affected by their parents’ alcohol use and provide advice to national and local government on where action could have the greatest impact on improving life chances.

This information is not collected centrally.

Anyone who is concerned that they may be dependent on medicines which have been prescribed to them, can get advice from their general practitioner, a community pharmacist, the 111 helpline or the on-line NHS Choices service:

http://www.nhs.uk/pages/home.aspx

In addition, the Government’s drugs information service, Talk to FRANK, also provides advice on how to access specialist drug treatment services, including services which help people who have a dependence on a medicine prescribed to them.

FRANK provides impartial, reliable and confidential information and advice about drug use. Public Health England (PHE) updates FRANK to reflect new and emerging patterns of drug use and is currently considering how best to enhance the service to remain in line with young people’s media habits and strengthen situational advice to reduce risks to young people.

Local authorities are responsible for commissioning drug and alcohol education prevention and treatment services to young people and parents. PHE supports local authorities in this work by providing a range of supportive guidance and materials, as well as bespoke data, value for money tools, topical briefings, and advice on good practice.

PHE is supporting a range of prevention and information programmes for young people and parents, including jointly funding Mentor UK’s Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Information Service which is a web-based platform for sharing information and resources aimed at schools and practitioners working in drug and alcohol prevention.

PHE also provides Rise Above, an online social marketing programme that aims to reduce the uptake of risky behaviours, including drug taking, by young people aged 11-16. It aims to give them the skills required to make better decisions in ‘risky’ situations to delay and prevent them from engaging in exploratory behaviours.

FRANK provides impartial, reliable and confidential information and advice about drug use. Public Health England (PHE) updates FRANK to reflect new and emerging patterns of drug use and is currently considering how best to enhance the service to remain in line with young people’s media habits and strengthen situational advice to reduce risks to young people.

Local authorities are responsible for commissioning drug and alcohol education prevention and treatment services to young people and parents. PHE supports local authorities in this work by providing a range of supportive guidance and materials, as well as bespoke data, value for money tools, topical briefings, and advice on good practice.

PHE is supporting a range of prevention and information programmes for young people and parents, including jointly funding Mentor UK’s Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Information Service which is a web-based platform for sharing information and resources aimed at schools and practitioners working in drug and alcohol prevention.

PHE also provides Rise Above, an online social marketing programme that aims to reduce the uptake of risky behaviours, including drug taking, by young people aged 11-16. It aims to give them the skills required to make better decisions in ‘risky’ situations to delay and prevent them from engaging in exploratory behaviours.

Stakeholder representation on the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood Tissue and Organs’ Donor Selection Criteria Working Group consists of the Terence Higgins Trust, National Aids Trust, Patients Association, Sickle Cell Society, Thalassemia Society and the LGBT Consortium. A Stakeholder meeting is planned alongside the first meeting of the Working Group and a wider range of stakeholders is to be invited. Relevant stakeholder representatives such as former sex workers and ex-intravenous drug users will be invited to attend the Working Group when it is considering particular aspects of donor selection criteria.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Public Health England, Local Alcohol Profiles for England (LAPE) provides local data alongside national comparisons to support local health improvements. The latest LAPE data can be found at:

http://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/local-alcohol-profiles

In October 2015 Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency changed medicines regulations to widen the availability of naloxone. Public Health England provided advice on local implementation.

Drug poisioning deaths – which include drug misuse deaths – are published annually by the Office for National Statistics. These statistics are for deaths registered in each year.

Since there are often delays in registering drug-related deaths, it is likely to be some time before we can meaningfully assess what impact the wider availability of naloxone has made on the numbers of drug related deaths.