Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with (a) NHS England and (b) Clinical Commissioning Groups about providing additional financial support to the five remaining inpatient detoxification units in England.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the needs of their local population and commissioning drug prevention, treatment and harm reduction services, including in-patient detoxification. The Government has recently announced an additional £80 million to fund drug treatment in 2021/22. A proportion of this funding will be specifically allocated to expanding the provision of inpatient detoxification and to expand use of the life-saving overdose medication, naloxone.

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 next financial year, meaning local authorities can continue to invest in prevention and essential frontline health services.

While no specific discussions have taken place, the additional funding is expected to strengthen provision of this part of the drug treatment system.