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Written question asked by Tony Lloyd (Labour) on Friday, 2 December 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 7 December 2005. It was answered by John Healey (Labour) on Wednesday, 7 December 2005 on behalf of the Office for National Statistics.

Drugs Overdose

Question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many deaths resulted from an overdose of (a) methadone, (b) heroin and (c) other classified drugs in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answer

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 7 December 2005:"As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many deaths resulted from an overdose of (a) methadone, (b) heroin and (c) other classified drugs in each of the last five years for which figures are available. (35477)""Figures readily available from death certification relate to deaths due to drug poisoning, not the total number that were attributable to drug use. These figures are produced from a special database which contains deaths where the underlying cause was drug poisoning. The most recent year for which figures are available is 2003. The table below shows the number of deaths due to drug poisoning where methadone, heroin/morphine or any drug controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act were mentioned on the death certificate for the five years 1999 to 2003."

Number of deaths from drug-related poisoning where methadone, heroin/morphine, or other controlled drugs were mentioned on the death certificateEngland and Wales: 1999–2003(9)
Calendar year (a) Methadone (b) Heroin/ morphine (c) Controlled drug excluding deaths with a mention of methadone or heroin/morphine Any controlled drug mentioned
1999 298 754 414 1,498
2000 238 926 405 1,593
2001 207 889 338 1,447
2002 216 790 343 1,356
2003 175 591 264 1,052
(9) Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes F11-F16, F18-F19, X40-X44, X60-X64, X85 and Y19-Y14.
(10) Some deaths may be counted in more than one category of this table, for example if heroin and methadone are recorded on the death certificate, the death will be recorded once under methadone, once under heroin and once under any controlled drug.
(11) Data are for deaths occurring in the calendar year.
(12) Source: Table 2 of the annual report: ”” Deaths related to drug poisoning: England and Wales, 1999–2003, published in Health Statistics Quarterly 25 in February 2005.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
35477; 440 c1325-6W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Death Drugs Poisoning Misuse Heroin Methadone Overdoses
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk