Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if will he will make an assessment of the potential merits of testing for the use of (a) GHB and (b) GHL in standard toxicology reports where the cause of death is unclear.

The public health grant is allocated to local authorities to meet all of their public health responsibilities and no amount is specifically allocated to harm reduction strategies. It is up to each local authority to decide how much of the grant they allocate to drug prevention and treatment services to meet the needs of their local population.

Public Health England (PHE) established a national HIV Prevention Innovation Fund to support new approaches to prevention that could be replicated elsewhere and are focused on engaging at-risk or under-served communities. This includes supporting services for men who have sex with men and use drugs such as gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) during sex.

No specific assessment has been made of the potential merits of testing for the use of GHB and GBL in standard toxicology reports where the cause of death is unclear.