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Reports |
Children and young people's alcohol and drug services: framework
This framework sets out guidance for designing, commissioning and providing alcohol and drug support for children and young people in England | DHSC, UK
Safeguarding children affected by a parent's alcohol or drug use
Updated guidance to reflect current safeguarding policy and programmes. It also focuses more on workforce expectations and ways of working, the effects of stigma and trauma, and pregnancy and the perinatal period. The page also now includes a self-assessment checklist to support commissioners and service providers to assess and improve current performance | DHSC, UK
Preliminary findings show that 1720 people - including 51 children - died while homeless in 2025
Independent research found that deaths rose 6.8% in 2025 vs the previous year. Over 30% of the deaths in 2025 were either on the streets or in rough sleeper’s accommodation. Bristol, Brighton and Hove, Edinburgh, Camden and Stirling had the five highest rates of reported deaths per 100,000 population across the UK. ‘Deaths of Despair’ caused by drugs, alcohol or suicide are the most common (52%). Recovery, harm reduction and mental health services need urgent investment | Museum of Homelessness, UK
Adult smoking habits in the UK: 2025
Around 4.9 million people aged 18 years and over (9.8% of the population) smoked cigarettes in the UK in 2025. This is a decrease from 2024 (10.6%), which follows a long-term downward trend. The proportion of current smokers has fallen by 10.4 percentage points since this data time series began in 2011 (20.2%), based on our estimates from the Annual Population Survey (APS) | ONS, UK
Smoking profile: statistical commentary, October 2026
An overview of the extent of smoking, smoking-attributable harm and the measures being taken to reduce that harm at a local level in England | OHID, UK
Alcohol advertising puts people at risk of relapse say members of recovery community - New Report
People with lived experience of alcohol harm have called for a new approach to alcohol advertising and marketing, saying that its ubiquity acts as a potential trigger that puts them at risk of relapse | Alcohol Focus Scotland, UK
I’ll drink to that - offering alcohol-free beer on tap boosts pub choices while keeping revenues intact, new study shows
Simple changes to pub environments can encourage drinkers to choose alcohol-free options without harming profits, according to new research | University of York, UK
The World Health Organization coca review: A post mortem
For thousands of years, coca has been a cornerstone of the cultural, spiritual, and medicinal traditions of Indigenous Peoples in the Andean-Amazonian region. Coca leaves typically contain between 0.2% and 0.8% cocaine alkaloid, giving chewing the leaves or drinking coca tea a mild stimulant effect comparable to that of coffee | IDPC, UK
UK Drug Trends Intelligence - First edition - October 2026 - What is changing in the UK drug market and what services need to know.
This first edition brings together a national picture at a fixed publication cut-off. The report covers changes in the UK drug market, emerging substances and mixtures, prevalence, serious harms, treatment implications and practical responses. It also considers prices and supply, wastewater intelligence, young people, safeguarding, prisons, housing and sexual health settings | TD Research Lab / TD Consultancy, UK
Wastewater analysis: estimating drug consumption, 2021 to 2026
This report presents the latest findings from the Wastewater Analysis for Narcotics Detection (WAND) programme. It updates the 2021 to 2026 trend analysis for 6 key drugs: cocaine, ketamine, amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA, and heroin. The trend analysis is based on samples from 16 English sites monitored consistently since 2021. Cocaine remained the most consumed of the 6 key drugs, while estimated ketamine consumption decreased by 11% between 2025 and 2026 after several years of sustained growth | Home Office, UK
National Mission on Drugs: annual report 2025 to 2026
Sets out the progress made between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026 by national government, local government and third sector partners towards reducing drug deaths and improving the lives of those impacted by drugs in Scotland | Scottish Government, UK
Childhood, interrupted: Parental problem alcohol use and its harms to children (PDF)
Parental problem alcohol use (PPAU) is a well-established Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) with profound and enduring consequences for the physical and mental health of children affected – in childhood and into adulthood. Ireland’s high levels of alcohol consumption is closely associated with increased levels of harm as decades of evidence demonstrates that greater consumption leads to greater harm and reduced consumption leads to reduced harm | Alcohol Action Ireland, Ireland
Drug production in Afghanistan and the region: new EUDA report highlights value of innovative monitoring and early warning to better inform drug policy
The European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) has today published a report, Drug production in Afghanistan and the region: innovative monitoring to better inform policy, examining how drug production systems in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries are adapting to political change, enforcement pressure and market demand | EUDA, Portugal
Tobacco giants exaggerate the size of Britain's illegal cigarette market threefold
New report - Beyond the headlines: the reality of illicit tobacco in the UK - reveals stark gulf between tobacco industry claims and official figures, as illegal cigarette consumption falls almost 90% | ASH, UK
Needle and syringe programmes - EDM (Early Day Motion)1018: tabled on 21 October 2026
Motion text - That this House welcomes the Out of Reach report (PDF), published by the Hepatitis C Trust, alerting us to the declining access to needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) and the threat to public health... | UK Parliament, UK
More than third of deaths of ex-prisoners on probation drug related, says report
More than a third of deaths of former prisoners on probation in Wales in a year were drug related, according to a new report. (PDF) This was higher than across England and Wales combined, where just over a fifth of total deaths were drug related. The Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, which published the report, urged politicians to tackle "systematic failures" in the criminal justice system. Report author Dr Robert Jones called on the UK and Welsh governments to find a solution to the "tragic" situation | BBC, UK
Public attitudes towards the UK alcohol duty reforms:Briefing Note - October 2026 (PDF)
This briefing note reports findings from a study evaluating alcohol pricing policies implemented in the United Kingdom. These include: 1) A 10% increase on alcohol taxes and changes to the structure of the tax system, collectively known as the alcohol duty reforms. These policies were introduced in the United Kingdom in 2023 during a cost-of-living crisis, and 2) Minimum unit pricing (MUP), which was introduced in Scotland in 2018 (and subsequently increased in 2024) and Wales in 2020 | SARG, UK
Trafficking in persons for the purposes of forced criminlaity (PDF)
Scam operations. Drug runs. Theft rings. Behind many of these crimes are victims of human trafficking | ICAT, Austria
Alcohol-specific deaths fall 3%
The number of deaths wholly attributed to alcohol fell by 3% in 2025, according to new figures from National Records of Scotland. There were 1,152 alcohol-specific deaths registered last year, 33 fewer than in 2024. The fall was driven by a decrease of 43 in the number of deaths among males while there was an increase of 10 deaths among females. The rate of deaths among males is still twice that of females | NRS, UK
Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) quarterly report
Drug-related harm in Scotland remains high. Between June and August 2026, ambulance naloxone administration incidents were stable, while suspected drug deaths decreased compared with the previous quarter. Cocaine was the most frequently reported drug across treatment and toxicology data. The benzodiazepine market continued to evolve, with frequent detections of novel benzodiazepines. Nitazenes were detected in 8% of deaths positive for a controlled drug. Reports and detections of nitazenes have decreased across several indicators | PHS, UK
Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) Alert: Nitazenes Briefing
Nitazenes are a group of potent synthetic opioids that are now widely detected across Scotland. Nitazenes pose a high risk of overdose, hospitalisation and death. Different types have been detected. Some are hundreds of times more potent than heroin. Nitazenes are most commonly found as an unexpected contaminant in drugs sold as heroin, benzodiazepines and oxycodone. Services supporting people who take drugs should promote and discuss harm reduction measures. All staff should be aware of the signs of overdose and the immediate actions required, in particular the use of naloxone | PHS, UK
Prescribing for opioid dependence in Scotland
This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides updated statistics on opioid agonist therapy (OAT) prescribing in Scotland. OAT is an evidence-based treatment for opioid dependence that aims to reduce illicit opioid use and associated harms. This report provides an overview of OAT prescribing in both community and prison settings in Scotland, including data on prescriptions dispensed and estimates of the number of individuals receiving treatment | PHS, UK
Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales: 2025 registrations
Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales from 1993 to 2025, by cause of death, sex, age and substances involved in the death | ONS, UK
Residential rehabilitation bed capacity in Scotland, August 2026
As at August 2026, the maximum residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation bed capacity in Scotland was 619 beds across 30 facilities. This is an increase of 45 beds (8%) compared with October 2025 (574 beds) | Scottish Government, UK
Smoking ban on school grounds and children’s play areas supported by 93% of polled Scots, as new report is published
A huge majority of people surveyed in Scotland support proposals to extend smoke-free spaces to outdoor areas mainly used by children such as school grounds and play areas, according to an opinion poll commissioned by ASH Scotland | ASH Scotland, UK