§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the current average waiting list for NHS drug treatment services. [43849]
§ Ms JowellWe currently have no comprehensive systematic national data on waiting lists for drug treatment services. However, early returns from work being carried out on behalf of the Department by the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse suggests that the average waiting time for access to drug services in the statutory and non-statutory sectors is 14 weeks. Returns were received from around half the agencies in England. These agencies were broadly representative of the pattern of services nationally in that they were equally divided between the National Health Service and the voluntary sector and community-based and residential services.
One of the key performance targets in "Tackling Drugs Together to Build a Better Britain", which sets out our 10 year anti-drugs strategy, is to reduce the number of drug misusers being denied immediate access to appropriate treatment. Over the next few months, we will be considering what changes are necessary to meet this key aim and what systems will be required to monitor progress towards the target.