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 5 March 2025 to Question 31856 on Buprenorphine, if he will hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of ensuring Buvidal is made available on release from prison to all people who have received Buvidal whilst in prison.

Ministers in the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Justice have discussed the issue. The Department of Health and Social Care advises local areas that they can use the funding given to them to deliver drug and alcohol treatment to enable prescribing of buprenorphine long-acting injection in their areas, and advises and supports local areas to establish, maintain and grow this provision and this includes for those who leave prison.

It is a clinical decision whether to offer this treatment, based on an individual assessment and personal choice. Buvidal is available in all regions in England; the following table shows its availability in community structured treatment as a proportion of the overall population in treatment for opiate use, broken down by region, for the fourth quarter of 2023/24, the latest period for which data is available:

Source: National Drug Treatment Monitoring System March 2024