Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many opioid prescriptions were handed out in County Durham in the year to August 2021.

The NHS Business Services Authority’s data shows that 543,296 prescription items for opioid analgesics were prescribed and subsequently dispensed in a community setting in County Durham between September 2020 and August 2021. The data is based on items prescribed by Durham County Council, County Durham Clinical Commissioning Group and County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.