Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to place opioid-overdose reversal Naloxone alongside existing public access defibrillators.

The Department is working to expand access to naloxone, and to increase the availability of this life saving medicine. We will shortly update legislation to enable more services and individuals to provide take-home supplies of naloxone without a prescription. This follows a public consultation in which the responses were overwhelmingly supportive of our proposals. The consultation outcome is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposals-to-expand-access-to-take-home-naloxone-supplies

These changes mean naloxone can be given to a family member or friend of a person who is known to be using opiates, and to professionals working with people who use these drugs, to save lives in the event of an overdose.

Whilst the government has no current plans to place naloxone alongside public access defibrillators, we are committed to making naloxone as accessible as possible to those who need it. We are therefore considering the feasibility and potential benefits of a range of options, including making naloxone available in locked boxes in public places.

We have also launched a £5 million fund to tackle drug deaths across the United Kingdom, which is funding research projects that are considering other innovative ways to make naloxone more readily available. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/5-million-fund-to-tackle-fatal-drug-deaths-across-the-uk