Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department plans to take to support people who are addicted to the psychoactive substances prohibited by the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the local need for drug treatment and commissioning services to meet that need. This involves developing services that can help people with a range of drug problems; which can also respond to emerging problems, such as new psychoactive substances.

Public Health England works with local authorities to support them in commissioning alcohol and drug services, providing guidance and materials, bespoke data, value for money tools, topical briefings and advice on good practice. This includes guidance on new psychoactive substances for substance misuse commissioners, including a toolkit which can be found at:

http://www.nta.nhs.uk/uploads/nps-a-toolkit-for-substance-misuse-commissioners.pdf