Drug poisoning involving nitazenes and fentanyl

FOI reference: FOI-2025-3131

You asked

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I would like to request the following information:

1. The number of deaths related to drug poisoning involving nitazenes and fentanyl analogues by country, England and Wales, deaths registered in 2024 and 2025 or the most recent provisional data available, if final figures are not yet published.
2. The number of deaths related to drug poisoning involving nitazenes and fentanyl analogues by region, deaths registered between 2020 and 2025.
3. The number of instances in which naloxone was administered by ambulance services between 2020 and 2025 and where this naloxone was administered.
4. The number of instances in which naloxone was administered by police officers between 2020 and 2025 and where this naloxone was administered.
5. The number of instances in which naloxone was administered by any other care provider between 2020 and 2025 and where this naloxone was administered.

If the ONS does not hold data on naloxone administrations, please advice which body holds this information.

We said

Thank you for your request. 

We produce statistics on deaths relating to drug poisoning in England and Wales. Figures for deaths involving specific substances are based on analysis of text that appears on the death certificate which is usually written by the coroner.  

Our data on deaths involving nitazenes and fentanyl analogues can be found in our Deaths related to drug poisoning by selected substances dataset. Currently data is available for deaths registered between 1993 and 2023. This dataset will be updated on 17 October with 2024 registrations when we publish our Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales: 2024 registrations release. Data for 2025 registrations will be published at a similar time in 2026.  

The number of these deaths by region will not appear in the publication. This is because these figures are likely to be very small, so would not enable conclusions to be drawn about trends by region and could, potentially, identify individuals. If you are interested in obtaining this data however, we could look into this as bespoke output. These services are subject to disclosure controls, so data could be suppressed in the output, as well as legal frameworks, resources, and an agreement of costs in line with our charging policy. If you are interested in this service, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.  

We do not collect any information on instances in which naloxone is administered. The Office for Health Improvements and Disparities (OHID) do publish a drugs early warning system dashboard that includes statistics on deaths linked to synthetic opioids or xylazine-like substances as well as ambulance call-outs where naloxone was administered. This data covers England only. For more information on these statistics from OHID, they can be contacted at dhsc.publicenquiries@dhsc.gov.uk.