Debate on prevention of drugs deaths

A Westminster Hall debate has been scheduled for Thursday 27 March on the prevention of drugs deaths. The subject of this debate was chosen by the Backbench Business Committee and the debate will be opened by Jim Shannon MP.

Drug use and drug deaths in the UK

According to ONS data, in 2023, there were 5,448 deaths related to drug poisoning registered in England and Wales. This is the highest number since records began in 1993 and an increase of 11.0% from 4,907 deaths in the previous year, 2022.

In 2023, the rate of drug misuse deaths was 90.4 deaths per million in 2023 (2,586 deaths) for men and was 34.4 deaths per million (1,032 deaths) for women, or 61.8 per million people overall.

In 2023, almost half (46.8%) of deaths from drug poisoning involved opiates. This increases to 60.7% when deaths with no specific drug type recorded on the death certificate are excluded.

UK drugs policy

In December 2021, the UK government published From harm to hope: a 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives. This document set out the government’s strategy to reduce drug-related crime, death, harm and overall drug use. It set out three priorities for the government:

• break drug supply chains,
• deliver a world-class treatment and recovery system, by implementing the key recommendations of in Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs, and
• achieve a generational shift in demand for drugs, by changing attitudes and reducing the social acceptability of illegal drug use.

The first annual report on the strategy’s progress was published in February 2024, and covers the period 2022 to 2023. It highlights progress in the recruitment of new alcohol and drug treatment workers, county lines closures and disruptions to organised crime.

The National Audit Office (NAO) and Public Accounts Committee have both reported on the government’s mixed progress in implementing the strategy and achieving its aims.

The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have also published their own policy documents on their approach to reducing drug-related harms:

• The Scottish Government launched a national drugs mission in January 2021 and published its National Drugs Mission Plan: 2022 to 2026 in August 2022.
• The Welsh Government published a Substance misuse delivery plan: 2019 to 2022 in October 2019.
• In Northern Ireland, the Department of Health published its substance use strategy, Preventing Harm, Empowering Recovery in September 2021.

Drug treatment services

Local authorities (upper tier and unitary) are responsible for commissioning drug and alcohol treatment recovery services as part of their public health responsibilities.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ guidance for local authorities on alcohol and drug treatment and recovery systems takes the form of a national commissioning quality standard (NQS), following the recommendation in Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs.

The commissioning quality standard: alcohol and drug treatment and recovery guidance provides a framework for commissioning harm reduction, treatment and recovery services for local commissioning partnerships.

Funding for drug and alcohol treatment services is provided through the public health grant which is awarded to local authorities.

Further reading

The Library briefing Misuse of drugs: regulation and enforcement explains current UK drug laws and how they are enforced.