Website of the Department of Health

Foreword

The Shipman Inquiry was set up in January 2001, following the conviction of Harold Shipman for the murder of 15 of his patients. The Inquiry was tasked with investigating the extent of Shipman's unlawful activities, enquiring into the activities of the statutory authorities and other organisations involved, and making recommendations on the steps needed to protect patients for the future.

Five Inquiry reports have now been published. The first three addressed the extent of Shipman's criminal activities, the 1998 investigation by the Greater Manchester Police, and death certification and the coroner system. The Fourth Report, The Regulation of Controlled Drugs in the Community, the subject of this Government response, was published on 14 July 2004 and is concerned with the systems for ensuring the safe and appropriate use of controlled drugs. The Fifth Report, Safeguarding Patients: Lessons from the Past - Proposals for the Future, addresses the arrangements for monitoring, assessing and disciplining GPs and arrangements for whistleblowing and handling complaints in the NHS.

Once again we would like to thank Dame Janet Smith and her team for their meticulous analysis of the weaknesses in existing systems which Shipman was able to exploit for his criminal purposes, and for the skill with which her recommendations balance the need to safeguard the legitimate use of controlled drugs for patient care and the need to protect the public from their misuse.

The Government fully accepts the need to strengthen current arrangements for the management of controlled drugs, and to do so in a way which does not hinder patients from accessing the treatment they need. We fully accept the great majority of the recommendations, and for the remainder we propose to achieve the same recommended ends by alternative action. We have also considered the implications of Dame Janet's recommendations for other healthcare sectors such as hospitals and care homes, and for the initial training and professional development of healthcare professionals. Our aim is to set the management of controlled drugs in the context of wider initiatives to create a culture of continuous quality improvement in the NHS.

In developing the Government's response we have been mindful of the far-reaching recommendations in the Inquiry's Fifth Report. We are still assessing the full implications of this report and will respond to it in detail in due course. However, we are confident that the action programme set out in this document is fully consistent with the broader picture.

As Dame Janet has acknowledged, no system for the regulation of controlled drugs can offer complete security against abuse from minds as devious as Shipman's. We believe however that the comprehensive programme of action which we are launching today will provide patients with robust safeguards against abuse, while still allowing controlled drugs to be used for their proper purposes in modern patient care.

David Blunkett
Home Secretary

John Reid
Secretary of State for Health

Published by The Stationery Office.

• Download Government response (PDF, 554K)
• Download Government response: regulatory impact assessment (PDF, 253K)
• Regulation of Controlled Drugs in the Community: Fourth report of the Shipman Inquiry (opens new window)
• Safer management of controlled drugs: early action