Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of making naloxone available in public spaces.

The Department has amended the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to expand access to naloxone. The legislation which came into force in 2024 enabled more services and professionals to supply this medication, making it easier to access for people at risk, and for their loved ones.

We recognise the need for greater public access to naloxone. As such, we recently launched a ten-week United Kingdom-wide public consultation on further legislative options to expand access to take-home and emergency use naloxone.

One of the legislative proposals we are consulting on is to create a new route of supply by enabling publicly accessible naloxone for emergency use using a locked box model. This overdose prevention method could enable more local areas to have naloxone available at any time in high-risk public spaces such as high streets and near to nightlife venues, without needing a prescription or in person supply.

This a central part of the Government’s comprehensive approach to drug and alcohol prevention, treatment, and recovery, supported by £3.4 billion of funding delivered through the Public Health Grant over the next three years.