Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 55
55
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 193
Increase provision of essential equipment and additional services for needle and syringe programmes.
Conclusion
The Combating Drugs Minister must work with the Department of Health and Social Care, the devolved administrations, and health partners to ensure that the provision of equipment—particularly low dead space syringes and safe water—is increased to reduce the transmission of blood-borne viruses and other illnesses. The Combating Drugs Minister must work to ensure that needle and syringe programme providers have the capability and capacity to provide additional services to people presenting to the service, such as blood-borne virus testing.
Government Response Summary
The government partially accepted, highlighting existing services and new investments through the SSMTR Grant (£1.3m for 2023/24), which specifies spending on low dead space syringes and supporting additional services. UKHSA is also planning a pilot for data collection.
Paragraph Reference:
193
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
The Government partially accepts this recommendation. Needle and syringe programmes are already embedded into, or work alongside, drug and alcohol services, commissioned by local authority public health to meet local need. Drug and alcohol services already support blood- borne virus prevention, and provide testing, vaccination, and treatment for these viruses. The SSMTR Grant menu of interventions includes an expansion of these services, including specifying the grant could be spent on low dead space syringes. Local authority SSMTR Grant plans included an additional £1.3 million being invested in needle and syringe programmes in 2023/24. The UK Health Security Agency, because of its interest in preventing blood- borne virus transmission and meeting agreed targets for hepatitis C elimination, has mapped needle and syringe programme sites in England and is now planning to pilot a new system for collecting needle and syringe programme data using automated data extractions from existing software systems. NICE published guidance in 2014 on needle and syringe programmes for people who inject drugs to reduce transmission of blood-borne diseases.21 One of its recommendations is that commissioners of needle and syringe programme should provide a range of services to meet local need. These services should provide health promotion advice and provide readily available hepatitis B and C testing and provision of, or referrals to, services for vaccinations, treatment and secondary care.