In 2001, the Government introduced the pooled drug treatment budget (PTB) to spend money directly on delivering suitable drug treatment, as well as improving access to treatment for example for offenders via drug intervention programmes, and supporting drug misusers after they come out of treatment, for example aftercare and supporting people.
This funding has increased yearly since the creation in 2001, along with the Government’s estimated yearly local mainstream spend. Details are shown in table one as follows.
£ million PTB Local funding1 Total 2001-02 142 145 287 2002-03 191 131 322 2003-04 236 200 436 2004-05 253 2204 457 2005-06 300 2208 508 1 Local authorities, primary care trusts, police and probation. 2 Estimated.
There is no central funding provided for alcohol treatment. It is the responsibility of the local primary care trusts and their partners to fund the treatment needed for their community. We do not routinely collect data on the amount of funding they have provided for alcohol treatment, so we are unable to provide year on year details. However, the alcohol needs assessment research project, published November 2005 conducted a more in-depth survey for 2005 and reached a conclusion that about £217 million is being spent on alcohol treatment.