Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how they will measure the effectiveness of actions set out in 'Optimising personalised care for adults prescribed medicines associated with dependence or withdrawal symptoms: Framework for action for integrated care boards (ICBs) and primary care', published on 2 March.

The framework for action sets out five actions for integrated care boards (ICBs) to consider to further reduce inappropriate prescribing of high-strength painkillers and other addiction-causing medicines, like opioids and benzodiazepines.

ICBs should take a population health management approach using data on primary care prescribing and health inequalities to monitor implementation of the actions. This includes looking at data on access to services, patient experience feedback and outcomes for communities within the integrated care system that often experience health inequalities.

There are several data resources used to give insights to ICBs and foster improvement at the local level, with data being available on an Opioid Prescribing Comparators dashboard. This dashboard can be used to review up-to-date data, highlight variation, and support local work to reduce harm from the prescribing of dependence and withdrawal forming medicines, as well as equip users with the tools for ongoing monitoring. The dashboard will be continually reviewed and updated with more metrics and views. More data is also available on duration of treatment of opioids, benzodiazepines, and z-drugs, as well as the number of patients prescribed a dependence forming medicine who have received a structured medication review.