Drugs: Death

(asked on 9th January 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to prevent drug-related deaths among homeless people.


Answered by
Jackie Doyle-Price Portrait
Jackie Doyle-Price
This question was answered on 14th January 2019

The Government is committed to halving rough sleeping by 2022 and ending it by 2027. The Department is delivering several commitments through the Rough Sleeping Strategy, published in August 2018, to ensure that the healthcare needs of rough sleepers are addressed; this includes measures to prevent substance-misuse related deaths among homeless people: a rapid audit of health services targeted at rough sleepers to identify gaps in service provision; and the provision of up to £2 million in health funding to test models of community-based health and support services for people who are rough sleepers. Both measures include a focus on substance-misuse services.

Public Health England is taking action to improve access to drug and alcohol treatment services for homeless people with drug and alcohol problems so that they get the help that they need. They will be issuing commissioning guidance to local authorities in 2019.

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