Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what support he is providing to NHS inpatient detoxification units in England to tackle the rising numbers of drug-related deaths in the UK.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing local need and commissioning alcohol and drug treatment services to meet these needs, including inpatient detoxification. The Government has recently announced an additional £80 million to fund drug treatment in 2021/22, a portion of which will be allocated to expanding inpatient detoxification. This treatment intervention has a strong evidence base for inclusion in drug and alcohol treatment programmes. All local areas will be able to benefit from this funding. We expect the expansion of detoxification provision to contribute to a reduction in drug-related deaths in England. This funding is in addition to the money local authorities already spend on substance misuse from the public health grant. Local authority spending through the public health grant will be maintained in the next financial year, meaning local authorities can continue to invest in prevention and essential frontline health services. Health is a devolved matter in the United Kingdom and the devolved administrations have their own policies and programmes in place to address substance misuse.