A British town is to give its 15 worst drug addicts two daily doses of heroin as part of a Government plan, it has been revealed. The Telegraph exclusively revealed in June that the Home Office was to award the UK’s first licences for addicts to be given free supplies of the illegal class A drug.

The full extent of the proposals have now be released, and a treatment plan in Middlesbrough - using medical grade heroin - is the first of its kind in the country and is designed to cut crime, reduce the number of addicts dying and boost their chances of recovery.

The office of the Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner Barry Coppinger is part-funding the scheme known as the Middlesbrough Heroin Assisted Treatment (HAT) programme.

Mr Coppinger said the policies of the past have failed and the pilot has been drawn up following extensive research and evidential study from home and abroad.

It will focus on up to 15 of Middlesbrough's most "at risk" individuals, for whom all other treatment plans have failed, and who have been flagged up by other agencies.