Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to develop a new drugs strategy in the light of the increase in nitazene-related overdoses and deaths in the UK.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The number of drug related overdoses and deaths remains too high. We are committed to saving lives, including with access to high-quality treatment. A continued focus on drugs and drug-related harms is key to addressing the problem and helping deliver the Government’s Safer Streets and Health Missions.

The Government has amended the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to expand access to naloxone, a life-saving opioid overdose reversal medication. The legislation means more services and professionals are able to supply this medication, which in turn means easier access to it for people at risk, and for their loved ones.

In 2025/26, the Department is providing £310 million, additional to the Public Health Grant, to deliver the recommendations from Dame Carol Black’s independent review. We are working on announcing multi-year funding allocations for drug and alcohol treatment from 2026/27.

The Department works with local authorities to improve drug and alcohol treatment and provides monitoring, data, guidance, and targeted support. The Commissioning Quality Standard, which is available in an online only format on the GOV.UK website, provides guidance for local authorities to support them in commissioning effective drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services.

In line with standard risk assessment processes, the Government is undertaking work to estimate the potential future scale of mortality linked to synthetic opioids, including nitazenes. The Department is working with other Government departments on enhancing surveillance and early warning in response to the threat of synthetic opioids. As part of this we have established new data streams, including collecting information on deaths linked to nitazenes through laboratory testing and ambulance callouts in which the opioid antidote naloxone was administered. The first quarterly report of data from these sources is expected to be published this summer. An ad hoc report on deaths linked to synthetic opioids was published last year.

For these reasons, the Government currently has no plans to develop a new drugs strategy.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the scale of nitazene-related deaths in the next 10 years, and what steps they are taking to measure the occurrence of nitazene overdoses; and whether they plan to publish data on those overdoses.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The number of drug related overdoses and deaths remains too high. We are committed to saving lives, including with access to high-quality treatment. A continued focus on drugs and drug-related harms is key to addressing the problem and helping deliver the Government’s Safer Streets and Health Missions.

The Government has amended the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to expand access to naloxone, a life-saving opioid overdose reversal medication. The legislation means more services and professionals are able to supply this medication, which in turn means easier access to it for people at risk, and for their loved ones.

In 2025/26, the Department is providing £310 million, additional to the Public Health Grant, to deliver the recommendations from Dame Carol Black’s independent review. We are working on announcing multi-year funding allocations for drug and alcohol treatment from 2026/27.

The Department works with local authorities to improve drug and alcohol treatment and provides monitoring, data, guidance, and targeted support. The Commissioning Quality Standard, which is available in an online only format on the GOV.UK website, provides guidance for local authorities to support them in commissioning effective drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services.

In line with standard risk assessment processes, the Government is undertaking work to estimate the potential future scale of mortality linked to synthetic opioids, including nitazenes. The Department is working with other Government departments on enhancing surveillance and early warning in response to the threat of synthetic opioids. As part of this we have established new data streams, including collecting information on deaths linked to nitazenes through laboratory testing and ambulance callouts in which the opioid antidote naloxone was administered. The first quarterly report of data from these sources is expected to be published this summer. An ad hoc report on deaths linked to synthetic opioids was published last year.

For these reasons, the Government currently has no plans to develop a new drugs strategy.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how they are supporting local authorities, local drugs information systems and professional information networks to respond to the increase in nitazene-related overdoses.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The number of drug related overdoses and deaths remains too high. We are committed to saving lives, including with access to high-quality treatment. A continued focus on drugs and drug-related harms is key to addressing the problem and helping deliver the Government’s Safer Streets and Health Missions.

The Government has amended the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to expand access to naloxone, a life-saving opioid overdose reversal medication. The legislation means more services and professionals are able to supply this medication, which in turn means easier access to it for people at risk, and for their loved ones.

In 2025/26, the Department is providing £310 million, additional to the Public Health Grant, to deliver the recommendations from Dame Carol Black’s independent review. We are working on announcing multi-year funding allocations for drug and alcohol treatment from 2026/27.

The Department works with local authorities to improve drug and alcohol treatment and provides monitoring, data, guidance, and targeted support. The Commissioning Quality Standard, which is available in an online only format on the GOV.UK website, provides guidance for local authorities to support them in commissioning effective drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services.

In line with standard risk assessment processes, the Government is undertaking work to estimate the potential future scale of mortality linked to synthetic opioids, including nitazenes. The Department is working with other Government departments on enhancing surveillance and early warning in response to the threat of synthetic opioids. As part of this we have established new data streams, including collecting information on deaths linked to nitazenes through laboratory testing and ambulance callouts in which the opioid antidote naloxone was administered. The first quarterly report of data from these sources is expected to be published this summer. An ad hoc report on deaths linked to synthetic opioids was published last year.

For these reasons, the Government currently has no plans to develop a new drugs strategy.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many times naloxone has been administered by (1) police officers, and (2) paramedics, since June 2019.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Home Office publishes data on the carriage of naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote, by police officers and police staff. The data cannot be broken down into how many times naloxone has been administered by police officers.

There have been 1,232 administrations of naloxone in the United Kingdom by the police from June 2019 to 30 December 2024. The following table shows the breakdown of these administrations:

The Department is planning to publish counts of ambulance call-outs where naloxone was administered in the coming weeks. The figures reported will be analysis of data collected by the Department for surveillance purposes rather than official national statistics and it will cover from January 2022 as it does not hold complete data from England from before then.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 17 July (HL9620), when they will publish the first quarterly report of data on the scale of mortality linked to synthetic opioids.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department has developed the report on deaths linked to synthetic opioids and ambulance call-outs in which the opioid antidote naloxone was administered that was previously referred to. The report is being prepared for publication in the coming weeks.

Found: At the Expo, both Ministers will also meet with Lord Mendoza, a member of the UK Soft Power Council’s

Found: At the Expo, both Ministers will also meet with Lord Mendoza, a member of the UK Soft Power Council’s