Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of allowing the use of injectable buprenorphine (Buvidal) for the treatment of drug addictive prisoners and whether Buvidal should be available for the benefit of all appropriate NHS patients.

NHS England commissions long-acting injectable buprenorphine as an opioid substitution treatment. It is available in all English prisons for patients for whom it is clinically appropriate.

NHS England has increased funding for this treatment and recently revised the national service specification to include long-acting buprenorphine as an alternative form of opioid substitution treatment for clinically appropriate patients.