HC Deb 16 December 1999 vol 341 cc306-7W
Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of heroin addicts in Great Britain received rehabilitation treatment in each of the past five years; and what estimate he has made of the numbers who will receive rehabilitation in the next five years. [101977]

Yvette Cooper

Information on the number of heroin addicts in Great Britain is no longer collected centrally. Data for the last five years for which data were collected (1992–96) are in Table 1.

The regional drug misuse databases record drug users presenting to treatment agencies in Great Britain, in six-monthly periods. Table 2 shows the number of those users with heroin as their main drug of misuse for the period 30 September 1993 to 30 September 1998.

A key performance target set in the first annual report and national plan of the United Kingdom anti-drugs co-ordinator is to increase the participation of problem drug misusers, including prisoners, in drug treatment programmes which have a positive impact on health and crime by 100 per cent. by 2008; and by 66 per cent. by 2005".

The dataset collected by regional drug misuse databases is currently being reviewed to determine an appropriate baseline for this target.

Table 1: Addicts notified to Home Office during the years 1992 to 1996–United Kingdom
Year Number of notified addicts
1992 16,964
1993 18,919
1994 22,313
1995 24,530
1996 30,573

Source

Statistical Bulletin—"Statistics of Drug Addicts Notified to the Home Office, United Kingdom, 1996"

Table 2: Users starting agency episodes in Great Britain with heroin as their main drug of misuse, in the six-month periods ending 30 September 1993 to 30 September 1998—Great Britain
Six-month period ending Number of users
September 1993 8,643
March 1994 9,746
September 1994 11,191
March 1995 12,282
September 1995 13,400
March 1996 14,488
September 1996 16,621
March 1997 18,285
September 1997 16,981
March 1998 16,390
September 1998 18,994

Source

Statistical Bulletin—"Statistics from the Regional Drug Misuse Databases for the six months ending September 1998" and earlier bulletins.