Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what training on the potential risks of opioid substitution treatment medications is provided to pharmacists, social workers and health visitors.

There is robust clinical guidance on substitute prescribing, which covers the timing and circumstances under which people with opiate dependency may be allowed to take home and be responsible for their opioid substitution medicine.

It is for the professional bodies of pharmacists, social workers and health visitors to set the standards that training equips professionals to meet, and for employers to ensure that staff who are involved in or might encounter opioid substitution treatment are trained in its potential risks, including to children.