Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has had recent discussions with his counterpart in Northern Ireland on trends in the level of deaths from pregabalin consumption in the north west of Northern Ireland; and whether he plans to take steps to amend sentencing guidelines in the context of these trends.

The maximum penalty specified in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 for supply of a class A controlled drug is life imprisonment, and for class B or C it is 14 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. The government reclassified pregabalin as a Class C controlled drug in 2019 following an assessment of its harms by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

Sentencing guidelines are developed by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales (‘the Council’). The Council is an independent body which decides on its own priorities and work plan. Guidelines produced by the Council are not applicable to courts in Northern Ireland, as sentencing is a devolved matter.

The Council recently reviewed and revised its drug offences sentencing guidelines, which came into force on 1 April 2021. They set out that exposure of a drug user to the risk of serious harm over and above that expected by the user is an existing aggravating factor for the offence of supplying a controlled drug. An aggravating factor makes an offence more serious and is considered by the court when sentencing.

Justice Ministers have not discussed pregabalin-related deaths with the Northern Ireland Department for Justice.