Reports: September |
Drug-related deaths in Scotland, 2024
In 2024, there were 1,017 drug misuse deaths registered in Scotland. This is a decrease of 13% (155 deaths) compared with 2023. Drug misuse deaths in Scotland have increased over the last two decades. The number increased in each year from 2014 to 2020, which was the highest number in the series (1,339 deaths). Overall, the number of deaths has decreased since then with a large decrease (-21%) between 2021 and 2022, followed by an increase (12%) between 2022 and 2023. The latest figure is the lowest number of drug misuse deaths registered in any year since 2017 | National Records of Scotland, UK
Drug and Alcohol Treatment and Recovery Services Workforce Census
This is the third national census for drug and alcohol treatment and recovery services and commissioning. It is designed to provide insights into the workforce size, skill mix and diversity in terms of age, gender, and ethnicity. It covers local authority-commissioned adult and young people’s treatment and recovery providers in the voluntary, NHS, local authorities, and independent/private sectors, as well as the local authority commissioning workforce and lived experience recovery organisations (LEROs) in England | NHS England, UK
Illegal sales of tobacco and vapes to under 18s in Scotland give cause for concern as Trading Standards find one in five retailers are willing to break the law
Ongoing work by Trading Standards Officers in Scotland testing sellers of tobacco and nicotine vaping products (vapes) has found that 1 in 7 premises visited sold cigarettes, and 1 in 5 sold vapes to an under 18 volunteer. These are significantly worse results than expected and may in large part be caused by the child appealing nature of vapes, and their wide availability in shops and service premises | CTSI, UK
Official Statistics - Smoking profile: September 2025 update
An overview of the extent of tobacco use, tobacco-related harm, vaping use and the measures being taken to reduce smoking-related harms at a local level in England | OHID, UK
Official Statistics - Substance misuse and mental health issues: September 2025 update
The ‘Co-occurring substance misuse and mental health issues profile’ on the Fingertips tool includes a range of indicators on people receiving treatment for drug and alcohol treatment and treatment for co-occurring mental health conditions. This update includes routine updates to several existing indicators, as well as adding 3 new indicators. These new indicators were previously published by NHS England and are: 1) hospital admissions for drug-related mental and behavioural disorders, 2) hospital admissions for poisoning by drug misuse and 3) hospital admissions where drug-related mental and behavioural disorders were a factor | OHID, UK
Rapid review of evidence about alcohol marketing and advertising: Influences on consumer attitudes and behaviours, and the effects of regulation on those behaviours
As part of the Scottish Government's commitment to reducing alcohol harm, they commissioned Public Health Scotland to conduct an independent review of research evidence related to the effects and potential restriction of marketing and advertising for alcohol. The aim of this review was to identify potential areas of evidence-based action on alcohol marketing where it may reduce alcohol harm or improve public health, as well as any areas where the evidence base is inconclusive or lacking | Public Health Scotland, UK
National naloxone programme Scotland - Quarterly monitoring bulletin
This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on the number of take-home naloxone kits issued by the National Naloxone Programme (NNP) in Scotland. Figures are presented separately for kits issued from community-based services (mainly specialist drug treatment and non-drug treatment services), kits issued in prisons at the point of liberation, kits dispensed via community prescription, and kits issued by Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) | Public Health Scotland, UK
Changing lives through the Blue Light Approach
An independent evaluation of the Blue Light Approach in action in Buckinghamshire has recently been released, revealing its hugely positive impact in helping people turn their lives around | Alcohol Change UK, UK
Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in Ireland: wellbeing, living experience, and the need for change (PDF)
The report provides the first integrated account of the lived experience of individuals with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) in Ireland, framed within a review of national and international policy, public awareness and diagnostic practice. It was compiled using surveys, focus groups and an international review | RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ireland
Women in Residential Treatment: Time Held Gently report
19th September 2025. Online. The Time Held Gently report looked at the experiences of women in treatment, women who had completed, as well as staff and professionals from across the sector. It highlights the barriers women face, the challenges of beginning recovery, and the systemic changes needed to improve support. This webinar will look at the report’s findings and examine potential steps that can be taken to improve outcomes | DDN, UK
Statistics on smoking cessation services in Northern Ireland 2024/25
Information on smoking cessation services between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 on clients who set a quit date and the outcome at 4 weeks |
Department of Health (Northern Ireland) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, UK
Interventions to reduce harms from cocaine
There is a trend of increasing drug deaths and cocaine harms in Scotland. The most severe consequences of cocaine use include dependence, overdose and death, but harms also include increased risk behaviours, wounds and infections as well as deteriorating mental and physical health and social exclusion. We undertook a scoping review to map published and unpublished review-level evidence to help understand what is known and not known about interventions to reduce harms associated with cocaine use | Public Health Scotland, UK
AOD Sector Insights Report
Our sector, like many others within health and community services, collects valuable information. However, this data often sits in silos, is difficult to access and analyse in a timely manner, or flows “upstream” without returning meaningful insights back. VAADABase was created to address this challenge. Since 2023, 17 AOD agencies have partnered with VAADA and Latitude Network to securely share de-identified client data. Together, we have co-designed data dashboards that help organisations understand both their own de-identified data as well as sector-wide trends in a timely manner | VAADA, Australia
Inequality Landscape: Health and Socio-economic Inequality in Scotland
This is the second annual report from the Health Foundation funded Scottish Health Equity Research Unit (SHERU). This year we have split the report into two sections: Part 1 provides a stock-take of key data that capture health inequality trends and the underpinning socio-economic conditions that shape population health in Scotland. Part 2 offers a deep dive into deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide and highlights young adult men experiencing socio-economic deprivation as a population group at high risk of these preventable deaths | Scottish Health Equity Research Unit (SHERU), UK
The Women’s Treatment Working Group launches its Womanifesto
The Women’s Treatment Working Group is a group of women in leadership roles, working together to improve support for women affected by drug and alcohol use. We come from both specialist and mainstream services and are united in challenging inequality and enhancing services for women. We are committed to learning from lived and living experience, and aim to work alongside women to create change. Download the full report, or the executive summary | Collective Voice, UK
Decrease in alcohol-specific deaths
Drugs and Alcohol Policy Minister Maree Todd has underlined her unwavering commitment to continue reducing alcohol harms, as new figures show the number of alcohol-specific deaths at a five-year low. According to statistics released by National Records of Scotland (NRS), the number of alcohol-specific deaths fell by 7% to 1,185 in 2024 | Scottish Government, UK
New report reveals further growth and key trends in alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks market
A second Monitoring Report from the Sheffield Addictions Research Group has been published, revealing further growth in the alcohol-free and low-alcohol (no/lo) drinks market and offering new insights into consumer behaviour and pricin | SHAAP, UK
2025 Drug Trends reports highlight demand for drug checking
Lead author, Dr Rachel Sutherland said the 2025 national reports show that drug checking remains common among people who use drugs like ecstasy. “Nearly two fifths (39%) of people who use drugs like ecstasy and 15% of people who inject drugs reported testing their illicit drugs in the last year” Dr Sutherland said | NDARC, Australia
Health trends and variation in England 2025: a Chief Medical Officer report
This report provides a snapshot on health in England and, where relevant, the wider United Kingdom. Some of the trends are longstanding, such as the changing age structure of the population and the improvements in health following substantially reduced smoking prevalence. Some important trends are less predictable, including cohort effects such as alcohol use, with lower median consumption by young people now than 3 decades ago (but still significant harmful drinking) | DHSC, UK
Speaking Without Stigma: Changing the Conversation Around Substance Use
Turning Point, has launched a campaign called Speaking Without Stigma to highlight the importance that language plays in supporting people. The Speaking Without Stigma, a guide to reducing stigma in substance use through the language we use, which has been produced in collaboration with people supported by Turning Point, challenges words and phrases that can stigmatise people and suggests alternate options that put people first | Turning Point, UK
National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
10,641 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services: 5,123 (48.1%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 3,990 (37.5%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,528 (14.4%) for co-dependency (problematic use of both alcohol and drugs) | Public Health Scotland, UK
Estimated numbers of people prescribed opioid substitution therapy in Scotland
In the 12-month period ending 31 March 2025 (the end of 2024/25 Q4), Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) was prescribed to an estimated minimum of 28,015 people in Scotland. In the 12 months to the end of the previous financial year quarter (2024/25 Q3) an estimated minimum of 28,644 people were prescribed OST | Public Health Scotland, UK
NHS stop smoking services quarterly
In the period January to March 2025, NHS Scotland achieved 90% (1,585 quits out of 1,757) of a quarter of the annual LDP standard | Public Health Scotland, UK
Estimating the burden of alcohol on the health of Northern Ireland (PDF)
In June 2025, British Heart Foundation Northern Ireland commissioned the Sheffield Addictions Research Group to use recent data on hospital admissions and deaths to estimate the burden that alcohol currently places in Northern Ireland. This analysis builds on previous work in England and Scotland | SHAAP, UK