Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to enable the provision of new nasal forms of naloxone to help prevent deaths from opioid overdose; and if he will make a statement.

Naloxone is a prescription-only medicine and it is on this basis that any new nasal naloxone products would be available when brought to the United Kingdom market. Under regulations that came into force in October 2015, people employed or engaged in the provision of drug treatment services can, as part of their role, supply naloxone that has been obtained by their drug service to others, as long as it is supplied for the purpose of being available to save life in an emergency. A prescription is not needed for the naloxone to be supplied in this way.

There has been no formal assessment of the decision of the European Medicines Agency to approve nasal forms of naloxone, however, officials from the Department, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and Public Health England (PHE) continue to work together to identify the best available legislative option to enable nasal naloxone to be provided on the same basis as injectable naloxone.

Local authorities are responsible for commissioning drug treatment services and interventions to reduce drug-related harm, including naloxone, based on local need. PHE continues to provide advice and support to local authorities on expanding naloxone provision.