Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 September 2018 to Question HL9971 on Benzodiazepines: Misuse, for what reason there is a 10 year restriction on evidence for the Public Health England review on addiction to medicine; and who decided on that restriction.

The specification and search protocols for the rapid evidence assessment were based on Public Health England’s (PHE) previous experience of conducting evidence reviews and after consultation with members of the review’s expert reference group and other experts in the field.

PHE has set a 10 year limit for collating research and other papers on this topic, so it can have a comprehensive set of current evidence, whilst being able to complete the report by spring 2019.

Approximately 30,000 research papers and other reports will be examined and assessed for the rapid evidence assessment. Reports that reference and build upon research published before 2008 will also be accepted for the review.