Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Public Health England Expert Group on Prescribed Drug Dependence will accept as evidence the individual testimonies of patients.

Public Health England (PHE) has been commissioned to undertake a public health evidence review of available data and published evidence on the problems associated with dependence, and the short term discontinuation or longer term withdrawal symptoms, associated with prescribed medicines.

PHE is aware of the importance and relevance of the experience of patients in understanding the issues. The review will include a call for papers which specifically identifies published accounts of the patients’ experiences, and this material will be specifically and deliberately focused on in the review. This process is distinct from a public inquiry, which would include individual testimony.

PHE is committed to publishing the agenda, papers and minutes of meetings of the expert reference group and the first set of these documents will be available during July 2018.