Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help prevent the use of nitazenes.

The Department is actively monitoring the threat posed by synthetic opioids such as nitazenes, and is working to increase awareness of their dangers and prevent people using them. Information on synthetic opioids and the dangers they pose is available from the helpline and website, talktofrank.com, provided by FRANK, the national drug information and advice service, supported by the Government.

Education on drug use is also a statutory component of relationships and sex education, and health education in England. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and the Department for Education have commissioned lesson plans and other resources to support teachers to deliver quality drug prevention, which are available to schools. The lesson plans target primary and secondary students, teaching them how to manage influences and pressure, and keep themselves healthy and safe. These resources are in the process of being updated, and there will be increased emphasis on the risks of synthetic drugs.

To improve surveillance, the OHID has been working with partners in Government to create a new, enhanced Drugs Early Warning System. This collates information from a wider range of sources, for example ambulance callout data, and will produce regular reports for local areas on current threats, including nitazenes.

Drug and alcohol treatment services and local authority public health teams raise awareness of the risk of drug use through targeted campaigns with their local populations, and the OHID supports them in this.