Drugs: Children In Care

Tim Loughton
To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether medical practitioners are required to inform local authorities when they administer drugs to children in care.

Ann Keen
There is no requirement on medical practitioners to inform local authorities when administering drugs to child in care. However, treatment of a child, including the prescription or administrating of drugs by medical practitioners, requires consent. In the case of children who lack the capacity to consent for themselves, a doctor would need to ask for consent from those with parental responsibility, which, for those on a care order, would be a local authority.