Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of deaths from illegal drug use.

Public Health England (PHE) led an inquiry last year into the recent rises in drug-related deaths in England. The report concluded that the reasons behind the increase in drug-related deaths are multiple and complex.

Since then PHE has issued advice on providing naloxone (the antidote to heroin overdose), published updated clinical guidelines for drug treatment and worked with a network of treatment providers to establish good practice guidance on managing drug-related death risk factors and improving partnership between treatment providers and other healthcare services.

PHE has also established a new Public Health Outcomes Framework indicator on drug-related deaths to enable local areas benchmark their performance against others.

PHE continues to work with local authorities, providing advice and guidance to support their work in reducing drug-related deaths. This includes improving drug-related death review processes and increasing the number of people with drug problems who are in drug treatment.