Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will support the provision of heroin-assisted treatment services throughout England.

Heroin Assisted Treatment (HAT) can be an effective way of treating individuals for whom other opioid substitutes have not been effective. This is an option open to local areas under the existing legal framework. Given that funding decisions on drug and alcohol treatment have been devolved, it is for local areas to decide whether to commission HAT services based on an assessment of local need.