Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of (a) users and (b) people that have experienced harm due to the use of nitrous oxide.

Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales shows that 1.3% of people aged 16 to 59 years old, and 4.2% of people aged 16 to 24 years old, had used nitrous oxide in the year leading to March 2023. This was a 48% and 54% decrease compared with the year ending March 2020, respectively.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is the Government’s independent expert advisory body on drug-related issues. In March 2023, the ACMD published a report on the updated assessment of the health and social harms of nitrous oxide. This report is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nitrous-oxide-updated-harms-assessment

The Home Office has committed to publishing a broad-ranging assessment of the effect of controlling nitrous oxide as a Class C drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. This will be published three years from the date of its control, in November 2026.