Medically supervised heroin clinics have helped substantially to cut crime and the use of street heroin among the UK’s most difficult to treat heroin users, early results of a study show.

Researchers who conducted the first randomised controlled trial of its kind in the UK say the government should set up further clinics. They presented their results at a conference at the Royal College of Physicians, London, organised by the charity Action on Addiction.

Paul Hayes, chief executive of the National Treatment Agency of Substance Misuse, which is overseeing the study, said, “No-one is suggesting that this should be the frontline treatment for heroin addiction.

“Heroin has been available on prescription since the 1920s to a very limited number of addicts, and these pilots …