Drug-related Deaths in England and Wales

Baroness Merron Excerpts

Tuesday 26th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[The Lord Bishop of Newcastle]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of data published by the Office for National Statistics on 23 October indicating that the number of drug-related deaths in England and Wales was higher in 2023 than in any other year since records began in 1993, and what steps they are taking to reduce the number of such deaths.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, drug-related deaths are tragically at record highs, especially in deprived areas. We are committed to tackling this problem, including by correcting the years of disinvestment in treatment services as highlighted by Dame Carol Black in her independent review. I was glad to lay legislation that widens access to naloxone, a life-saving opioid reversal medication, and this Government will continue to work across health, policing and the wider public services to prevent drug use and address the causes of inequality, including in Newcastle.

[The Lord Bishop of Newcastle]

I thank the Minister for her Answer. The ONS data revealed that the north-east has been the English region with the highest proportion of drug-related deaths for the 11th consecutive year—three times higher than the lowest rate, in London. Can the Minister say a little more about what targeted steps His Majesty’s Government are taking to reduce drug-related deaths, particularly in the north-east?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The right reverend Prelate is absolutely right to highlight the situation in the north- east. I can assure her that funding is allocated on the basis of need, and that includes the rates of drug-related deaths. I hope it was helpful that senior officials from the department recently met with the drug and alcohol service commissioners, the police and crime commissioners and the directors of public health from across the north-east to discuss synthetic drug threats. We will certainly continue to work with local areas, including the north-east, to tackle this very real issue.

[Lord Bird (CB)]

Can we accept the fact that a lot of the people who are dying are homeless, and a lot of them are the people who are on our streets? We know that drug addiction and bad health on the streets are a cocktail of death. Can we see some effort by the Government to put in place the rehab, detox and therapeutic communities that are necessary to get the demons out of the lives of people who are on the streets and in homelessness?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I understand the point that the noble Lord is making. We are funding the rough sleeping drug and alcohol treatment grant, which gives targeted treatment and wraparound support services to those who sleep rough, or who are at risk of doing so, in 83 local authorities. That includes a whole range of things. In addition, we are funding the housing support grant and working across government, including with the Deputy Prime Minister, who has brought together a dedicated interministerial group to tackle the very real problem that the noble Lord describes.

[Lord Mendoza (Con)]

My Lords, the Minister mentioned synthetic opioids. We all know the terrible scourge that they have wrought in America, with something like 75,000 deaths a year from synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and nitazenes. Can the Minister assure us that we are monitoring the supply of these drugs into this country so that we are spared the terrible scourge and loss of life among young people that has been experienced in America?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I understand what the noble Lord is saying. Synthetic opioids, as he will know, are certainly more potent, and indeed can be more deadly, than other forms of drugs. We are working with other government departments to enhance the surveillance to which he refers and to improve early warning in response to the threat of synthetic opioids, and we will continue that work.

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

My Lords, many charities that support those with drug addiction are raising concerns about the increased costs that they will have to fund as a result of the increases in national insurance charges. What assessment have the Government made of the impact on those critical services being able to support those with drug addictions?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Baroness will have heard me say before that we had to take some tough decisions at the Budget to fix the foundations in the public finances, and that enabled a settlement for the Department of Health and Social Care of some £22.6 billion. As she knows, the employer national insurance rise will be implemented in April 2025, and in due course the department will set out further details of the allocation of the funding I referred to for next year.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, I know this Government take drug-related deaths seriously, as did the previous Conservative Government when we awarded 12 projects a share of a £5 million fund to reduce rates of fatal drug overdoses, adopting a similar approach to that of the Vaccine Taskforce to tackle health challenges. Has there been any evaluation of how successful those projects were? What plans are there to continue or expand them?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

Our continuing work in this area is part of the Office for Life Sciences programme. This Government continue to fund research into wearable technology, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, all in a bid to support people with drug addictions. Since coming into office, we have awarded £12 million to projects across the UK that are showing innovation in respect of technology, because we want to support people with addictions.

[Baroness Meacher (CB)]

My Lords, what steps are the Government taking to support vulnerable children in schools who, without support, are likely to become addicted to drugs, in order to ensure that they reduce the numbers of drug deaths?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I assure the noble Baroness that education on drug use is an essential part of harm reduction and prevention. It is a statutory component of relationship, sex and health education.

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)]

My Lords, the two-year review of the LGA’s 10-year drugs plan has made a number of recommendations to improve the response. On the question of synthetic drugs, it recommended the implementation of early-warning systems so that changes at street level can be responded to in real time and samples of new substances can be tested as soon as possible. Can the Minister please look into those recommendations and see what support can be provided by the Government?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I will indeed be doing that, not least because our work with other departments continues to take account of the early warning to which the noble Baroness refers. That is in respect of the threat of synthetic opioids, which we know is extremely real and pressing.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Newcastle is absolutely right: there is a direct relationship between poverty and drugs deaths, which is why it is vital that we increase our resources for fighting poverty and why we need to raise taxes on wealthy landowners such as James Dyson and Jeremy Clarkson.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

As always, I pay close attention to the contributions of my noble friend, who makes helpful observations. We do indeed need to continue our work in this area. It is quite important to look back at the history that Dame Carol Black reported on. She talked about one of the difficulties being that funding for community drug and alcohol services was subsumed into the public health grant in 2013, which meant that by 2019-20 funding for those services had been reduced by over a third. That is a £212 million disinvestment. The result of all this is that drug use has increased, with all the major indicators of its harm. This is something we need to turn around.

[Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I echo what the Minister has just said. The last Labour Administration set up the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse and ring-fenced £800 million to provide treatment when drug users needed it. It reduced drug-related crime, drug use plateaued, and drug-related deaths were at an all-time low. Sadly, this funding was pulled suddenly, which resulted in the highest level of drug-related deaths ever, with drug use on the increase and drug-related crime going up. Can we go back to some of the sensible ideas we had about providing treatment for drug users?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My ministerial colleague Andrew Gwynne will be looking at how we improve drug and alcohol addiction services. In the light of recent Office for National Statistics data, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities has an action plan to reduce drug and alcohol-related deaths. Because of this recent data showing major increases, it will review the plan to make sure it is properly grounded and effective.