§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many drug rehabilitation places are available to registered drug addicts in the(a) Twickenham constituency, (b) London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and (c) London; how many registered drug addicts in the (i) Twickenham constituency, (ii) London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and (iii) London are receiving (A) rehabilitation and (B) other forms of drug treatment; and if he will make a statement. [88829]
§ Mr. HuttonInformation is not available in the form requested. In the case of residential rehabilitation, places are often purchased at a residential centre that may be outside the drug misusers area of residence. In practice some local authority social services departments agree to fund long distance placements with the agreement of the drug misusers so he/she can be removed from the area where they are involved in drug using. This means that in theory all of the approximately 3,100 residential rehabilitation places for drug and alcohol misusers in England are available to drug misusers resident in Twickenham and other parts of London. However, purchasing decisions are a matter for agreement between the drug misusers and the local agencies.
A one off exercise was carried out to estimate the number of drug users in England in contact with drug treatment agencies in 2000–01. Around of 27,400 individuals were reported to be in contact with drug treatment agencies in London; of these, 142 were reported as being in treatment at community specialist services in the London Borough of Richmond upon 802W Thames. A statistical bulletin "Statistics from the Regional Drug Misuse Databases on drug misusers in treatment in England, 2000/01" was published in December 2001, and is available on the Department of Health website at, http://www.doh.gov.uIc/public/sb0133.htm