The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse welcomed plans to make drug treatment a founding pillar of Public Health England, the dedicated professional public health service.

A Government white paper on public health confirmed that the service will take over the functions and staff of both the National Treatment Agency and the Health Protection Agency from April 2012, and be part of the Department of Health.

Public Health England will have a ring-fenced budget of about £4 billion and provide an integrated national framework for local action to improve people's lives and tackle health inequalities.

As well as recovery from drug dependency, it will be responsible for funding and ensuring the provision of services such as alcohol prevention, smoking cessation, obesity, sexual health and emergency preparedness. For the first time, funding streams for drug and alcohol treatment will be aligned in both community and criminal justice settings.  

Paul Hayes, NTA chief executive, said: "The white paper confirms that changing the behaviour of people dependent on drugs could save society almost £14 billion in the costs of drug-fuelled crime. The coalition government will set out its plans to enable drug users to overcome dependency, recover fully and contribute to society in the forthcoming Drug Strategy. Meanwhile the NTA will continue its task of managing the transition to the new public health service, and we anticipate that details of the pooled drug treatment budget for 2011-12 will be available shortly."