Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she has taken with Cabinet colleagues to tackle increases in the use of nitazenes (a) nationally and (b) in the South East England.
The Department of Health and Social Care continues to monitor the use of nitazenes and other synthetic opioids and has taken action to tackle the threat they pose. In July 2023, a National Patient Safety Alert was issued to the National Health Service and others, warning of potent synthetic opioids implicated in heroin overdoses and deaths and actions that local areas should take. The Department of Health and Social Care is a core member of the cross-government Task Force to develop mitigations to the synthetic opioids threat. Membership of the task force also includes the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, National Crime Agency, HM Prisons and Probation Service, Border Force and the police. As part of those mitigations, the Department of Health and Social Care is accelerating its work to expand access to naloxone and developing a drugs surveillance and early warning system.
The Government is investing £780 million nationally between 2022/23 and 2024/25 through drug strategy funding to improve drug treatment and recovery systems which will focus on increasing the numbers in treatment for opiate use.
In the South East specifically, an additional £43.7 million has been allocated via the Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) Grant and £3.3 million for the Inpatient Detoxification Grant to improve drug and alcohol treatment and recovery systems, totalling £47m. The following tables show indicative funding allocations for these grants for each area in the South East:
Supplementary Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) Grant | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Total |
Bracknell Forest | £144,526 | £147,375 | £206,039 | £497,940 |
Brighton and Hove | £1,142,490 | £1,872,323 | £3,613,294 | £6,628,107 |
Buckinghamshire | £339,114 | £345,800 | £584,638 | £1,269,552 |
East Sussex | £391,085 | £1,741,085 | £2,028,218 | £4,160,388 |
Hampshire | £802,715 | £818,541 | £1,541,380 | £3,162,636 |
Isle of Wight | £275,155 | £280,580 | £417,554 | £973,290 |
Kent | £1,101,719 | £2,202,986 | £3,615,400 | £6,920,105 |
Medway | £389,709 | £418,172 | £686,277 | £1,494,159 |
Oxfordshire | £622,452 | £634,724 | £1,136,228 | £2,393,403 |
Portsmouth | £503,741 | £825,535 | £1,593,156 | £2,922,432 |
Reading | £413,221 | £469,761 | £770,942 | £1,653,924 |
Slough | £266,434 | £271,687 | £277,256 | £815,378 |
Southampton | £654,506 | £1,072,611 | £2,069,974 | £3,797,091 |
Surrey | £721,703 | £735,933 | £1,500,381 | £2,958,017 |
West Berkshire | £184,055 | £187,684 | £220,527 | £592,265 |
West Sussex | £665,692 | £678,817 | £1,306,719 | £2,651,228 |
Windsor and Maidenhead | £164,752 | £168,000 | £240,617 | £573,368 |
Wokingham | £83,007 | £84,644 | £144,184 | £311,835 |
Total | £8,866,076 | £12,956,258 | £21,952,784 | £43,775,118 |
Inpatient Detoxification Grant | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | Total |
Bracknell Forest | £13,809 | £13,809 | £13,809 | £41,427 |
Brighton and Hove | £96,016 | £96,016 | £96,016 | £288,048 |
Buckinghamshire | £44,258 | £44,258 | £44,258 | £132,774 |
East Sussex | £72,422 | £72,422 | £72,422 | £217,266 |
Hampshire | £121,199 | £121,199 | £121,199 | £363,597 |
Isle of Wight | £22,750 | £22,750 | £22,750 | £68,250 |
Kent | £167,295 | £167,295 | £167,295 | £501,885 |
Medway | £37,006 | £37,006 | £37,006 | £111,018 |
Oxfordshire | £96,612 | £96,612 | £96,612 | £289,836 |
Portsmouth | £48,132 | £48,132 | £48,132 | £144,396 |
Reading | £41,625 | £41,625 | £41,625 | £124,875 |
Slough | £23,991 | £23,991 | £23,991 | £71,973 |
Southampton | £58,364 | £58,364 | £58,364 | £175,092 |
Surrey | £106,099 | £106,099 | £106,099 | £318,297 |
West Berkshire | £16,392 | £16,392 | £16,392 | £49,176 |
West Sussex | £96,214 | £96,214 | £96,214 | £288,642 |
Windsor and Maidenhead | £17,335 | £17,335 | £17,335 | £52,005 |
Wokingham | £9,686 | £9,686 | £9,686 | £29,058 |
Total | £1,089,205 | £1,089,205 | £1,089,205 | £3,287,837 |
Further details of funding allocations for individual local authority areas are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/extra-funding-for-drug-and-alcohol-treatment-2024-to-2025