Record number treated for drugs

More people than ever before went through drug treatment last year

A record 202,000 people went through drug treatment programmes in England last year, figures have indicated.

But only 7,300 addicts, or 3.6% of the total, left the programmes drug-free, the National Treatment Agency found.

More people than ever before were in treatment, said the agency, which oversees the £500m-a-year programme.

But services must now "raise their game" and be more ambitious as they try to help addicts come off drugs, the agency said.

The figures were a "watershed" and "over-achieved" the government's target of doubling those on the programme, the agency added.

More robust system

Government targets only measure the number of drug users in treatment and those that stay in treatment for 12 weeks. There is no target for getting users off drugs, the BBC's home affairs editor Mark Easton said.

More than 82,000 people started treatment in 2007/08, of whom more than 64,000 (78%) remained in structured treatment for 12 weeks, according to the agency.

Responding to the 3.6% figure, a spokeswoman said two-thirds of people remained in treatment at the end of each year, so could not be counted as having either "completed" or "failed" treatment.

Of the 69,612 individuals who were discharged from treatment in 2007/08, more than 35,000 were "successful completions", she said.

The agency said drug treatment services have used a variety of interpretations on how they measure the success of individuals completing and leaving the treatment system and a more robust system was needed.

A system which ensures services return data in the same way will be implemented from April 2009, it said.

This will define treatment completed "drug free" as no longer using heroin and crack cocaine, or any other drugs for which treatment is being received.

Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary Norman Lamb said the government was losing the fight against drugs and called for a National Audit Office investigation into the cost-effectiveness of current treatment.

"The current record of failure is disastrous both for those in treatment and the wider community who are placed at risk because of the close links between drug addiction and crime," he said.