To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average duration was of methadone treatment programmes in the latest period for which figures are available. (229664)

The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse collects data on local services via the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS). The NDTMS does not record the specific substitute drug a drug misuser in treatment is prescribed and while the majority of clients will have received methadone, clients’ treatment programmes/regimes may have included buprenorphine and diamorphine.

The average length of each prescribing intervention in 2007-08 was 338 days.