Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assistance his Department provides to people addicted to legal highs.

The dependence-forming potential of many new psychoactive substances (NPS) is still largely unknown, and the number of people attending specialist drug treatment services is relatively small. If users need help, it will more likely be because they have acute NPS-related problems (eg, agitation, palpitations, seizures) and they will probably first present at accident and emergency (A&E) departments.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing drug treatment needs in their local areas and providing services to meet that need. This includes determining the scale of NPS use and harm in their areas and ensuring there are services to tackle that harm.

Public Health England (PHE) supports local authorities in their work of assessing need and planning services, by improving data, intelligence and information sharing systems, to ensure prevention and treatment are as effective as they can be in the changing NPS market.

PHE has produced an NPS toolkit for substance misuse commissioners which gives a broad overview of the challenges from NPS and provides commissioners with resources and advice to inform their work.

PHE has also supported Project NEPTUNE, which is producing detailed and practical clinical guidance and tools for A&E, drug treatment and other services that deal with people who have NPS problems.