The Earl of Sandwich – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by The Earl of Sandwich on 2014-06-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they will assess the level of care provided by Public Health England and local charities to help those suffering from addiction to, and withdrawal from, psychiatric drugs; and whether they have estimated the number of those afflicted.

Earl Howe

Public Health England does not provide care, its role is to support commissioners to better understand and address local drug need. If local addiction charities are commissioned by a local authority, then it is the responsibility of local commissioners to assess the level of care they provide. If they are registered with the Care Quality Commission then they will be expected to meet minimum care standards.

There is no widely accepted definition of ‘psychiatric drugs’. In-depth research commissioned by the Department found that there are no national databases that can give us information on the number of people who are addicted to medicine.