Drugs: Misuse

(asked on 18th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they made of the effectiveness of overdose prevention centres in reducing death and other harms caused by drug use to individuals and society; and why they do not support pilot overdose prevention centres.


Answered by
Lord Sharpe of Epsom Portrait
Lord Sharpe of Epsom
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This question was answered on 11th January 2024

The Government does not support drug consumption rooms. We have been clear that we have concerns about the potential for these facilities to appear to condone drug use and to encourage the continued illicit supply of drugs. They will not be introduced in England and Wales.

We are aware of previous international studies of DCRs, sometimes referred to as overdose prevention centres, although there is usually little or no focus on how far DCRs reduce illicit drug use by those using DCRs, or whether they result in reductions in overall drug use. Methodological and geographical differences as well as the small number of cities where DCRs operate makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions at this stage. In addition, the impact of DCRs in isolation is hard to measure as a range of other support and interventions such as needle and syringe exchange programmes are often provided within a DCR.

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