Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children under the age of 16 have had a (a) fatal and (b) non-fatal drug overdose in each of the last 10 years.

The information in the format requested is not held centrally. The Office for National Statistics publishes an annual summary of all deaths related to drug poisoning (involving both legal and illegal drugs) and drug misuse (involving illegal drugs) in England and Wales. Data on deaths in those aged under 20 is grouped together. The reports are available at the following link:

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoninginenglandandwales/2017registrations

NHS Digital collects Hospital Episode Statistics regarding intentional self-poisoning that resulted in a hospital admission, however to provide this information for the last ten years would incur disproportionate costs.