Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps with Cabinet colleagues to introduce restrictions on purchasing sodium nitrate in quantities that pose a significant risk to (a) self harm and (b) life.

We are committed to implementing our suicide prevention strategy for England, which sets out priority areas and key actions to address the risk factors contributing to suicide and self-harm. Tackling methods of suicide and self-harm is one of these priority areas.

The Government continues to take steps to reduce access to, and awareness of, sodium nitrate. The Department leads a Concerning Methods Working Group, which develops and delivers rapid targeted actions to collectively reduce public access to, and awareness of, emerging methods of suicide, including the use of sodium nitrate. The group involves representatives from Government departments, including the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology and the Home Office, as well as representatives from the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sector, police, academics, and the National Health Service. This substance has been a particular focus of the actions implemented since the group was established and continues to be a priority in discussions about further action to be taken.

The group has worked with manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers to reduce access to this substance, where people may be intending to use it for suicide.