Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many deaths involving (a) nitazenes and (b) fentanyls have been confirmed by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in 2024 as of 25 April.

We are actively monitoring, and responding to, the continued threat posed by the growing levels of potent synthetic opioids in the United Kingdom. The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities receives intelligence via its networks on reported deaths from drug misuse, including those that involve nitazenes or fentanyls. There have been 14 deaths confirmed to have involved nitazenes, and no deaths confirmed to have involved fentanyls in England in 2024, as of 25 April.

Statistics on the annual number of deaths related to drug poisoning, including those involving synthetic opioids, are reported by the Office for National Statistics, and will be published in due course.