Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help support the routine use of digital consultations in community drug and alcohol treatment services.

As part of our shift from analogue to digital, the Department has provided guidance for alcohol and drug treatment services on maintaining a balance between digital, or remote, and in-person interventions. This guidance is available to view at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/substance-misuse-providing-remote-and-in-person-interventions.

While the Department supports the use of digital consultations in community drug and alcohol treatment services, they should be considered alongside an assessment of risk and need, to determine whether they are suitable. There are circumstances in which there is no digital substitute for an in-person consultation.