Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help support people addicted to ketamine.

Further to the answer provided on 30 June 2025 in response to Question 61669, the Department is currently reviewing and updating the toolkit it provides to drug treatment services and other stakeholders, which includes information on ketamine-related harms, prevention, treatment, and healthcare system responses, including the importance of referral pathways and joint working to support integrated care.

In 2025, the Department also published a ketamine factsheet for local authority public health teams to cascade to health partners, providing information on the risks associated with ketamine use and supporting frontline professionals to identify problems early, make appropriate referrals, and provide integrated treatment. Finally, the Department is supporting work led by the British Association of Urological Surgeons to improve awareness of ketamine-associated bladder damage among urologists, and strengthen referral and treatment pathways between specialist healthcare services and drug treatment providers.