Overview
- The Department of Health and Social Care launched a UK-wide consultation to widen legal supply routes for naloxone over the next 10 weeks.
- Proposals would let homeless hostels, day centres and outreach services supply naloxone without a prescription and create publicly accessible emergency boxes in high-risk locations.
- Ministers also propose supplying naloxone to specified emergency staff, including Border Force, the National Crime Agency and laboratory teams, and clarifying rules for workplaces at risk of opioid contamination.
- A draft statutory instrument has been published for comment, with final changes intended to amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 in 2026 subject to consultation responses and parliamentary approval.
- The effort forms part of a £3.4 billion investment and is being taken forward jointly with Northern Ireland with support from Scotland and Wales, as officials cite 5,448 drug deaths last year and a rise in nitazene deaths from 52 in 2023 to 180 in 2024.