Financial uncertainty is undermining local efforts to battle drug addiction, council chiefs warn as new report finds drug-related deaths are up by 80% over a decade.
A new report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found that Government efforts to reduce the harm from illegal drugs are ‘seeing mixed progress’.
The committee welcomed achievements in a number of areas, including drug worker recruitment and disruption to supply, but warned the progress in reducing drug use was ‘less clear’.
Drug-related deaths in England increased by 80% between 2011 and 2021, to nearly 3,000 people each year, according to the PAC’s findings.
‘As with our previous alcohol treatment services report, our committee is having to remind Government that local authorities need long-term certainty to carry out what is some of the most challenging treatment there is to provide,’ said PAC chair Dame Meg Hillier MP.
Responding to the report, Cllr David Fothergill, chairman of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Community Wellbeing Board said: ‘Councils report that it is proving difficult to plan to expand services due to long term financial uncertainty, significant recruitment challenges and the inability to offer longer term contracts of employment.
A Government spokesperson said the PAC’s report was based on ‘outdated data’ that pre-dates the Government’s Drugs Strategy, which was published in April 2022.
‘Since then we have increased the number of people in drug and alcohol treatment by over 17,000 and recruited 1,255 drug and alcohol workers. Drug use for people aged 16 to 24 is at the lowest level since the year ending March 2013.’
