Adult substance misuse treatment statistics 2021 to 2022: report

The government’s strategy for drug treatment is set out in the ‘building recovery’ section in the Drug Strategy 2017. You can find more detailed data on the drugs people were having problems with, in the accompanying data tables. There have been slight increases in numbers in the non-opiate only (4% increase) and non-opiate and alcohol (6%) groups and a small increase in the opiate group (1%). Of the people starting treatment, 98% did so within 3 weeks of referral to treatment.

Treatment exits and successful completion

There were 38 adults who died while they were in treatment in secure settings in 2023 to 2024. This represents 0.08% of the total adults in treatment and is a similar proportion (0.09%) to the previous year, when 44 people died. Figure 9 shows the proportion of people with NPS problems who reported housing problems, compared to the proportion of all people starting treatment. It shows that 20% of people with NPS problems said they had an urgent housing problem, compared to 5% of all people starting treatment. For non-urgent housing problems, the proportions were 22% of people with NPS problems and 11% for all people starting treatment. You can find a detailed breakdown of age statistics in the accompanying data tables.

Alcohol and the Human Body

This means that more than half of the deaths reported in this bulletin occurred in previous years. Table 1 shows drug-poisoning deaths by year of occurrence, based on all available finalised death registration data (up to the end of 2024). In the table, each occurrence year before 2023 is limited to a registration period within 15 months of the end of the occurrence year. For example, we know that 5,136 drug-poisoning deaths occurred in 2022 and were registered by the end of 2024, but we only knew about 4,868 of these, with deaths registered to the end of March 2024. This approach does not account for the increase in registration delays but gives a clearer indication of whether 2023 drug-poisoning death occurrences are higher than previous years or not.

Parental status and safeguarding children

Almost all (more than 99%) people in treatment received some form of structured treatment. You can find a definition of structured treatment in the NDTMS Adult drug and alcohol treatment business definitions, in the ‘Core dataset Q documentation section’ on the NDTMS website. Thirty-five per cent of children of people starting treatment were receiving early help. Fourteen per cent of the children substance abuse in older adults of all people starting treatment had a child protection plan and this figure was highest in the non-opiate group, at 23%. In 2022 to 2023, 20% (26,924) of people starting treatment were living with children, either their own or someone else’s. This was highest among men in treatment for non-opiates and alcohol, where 18% were parents who were not living with their children.

Police forces seized drug addiction treatment 1.69 tonnes of powder cocaine, representing a 50% decrease compared to the previous year. Most deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales are certified by coroners. The length of time it takes to hold an inquest results in a delay between the date a death occurred and the date of registration.

• Estimates in this bulletin are based on data from the CSEW self-completion section.
• Only 36% of people with opiate problems rented from a private or social landlord, whereas the proportions in all other substance groups were close to half (46% to 47%).
• Over half (52%) the adults in treatment were there for problems with opiates, and this remains the largest substance group.

Over two-thirds (70%, or 93,380) of adults starting treatment said they had a mental health treatment need. This is part of a trend of rising numbers over the previous 3 years (from 53% in 2018 to 2019). Two-thirds of new starters in all substance groups needed mental health treatment. This need ranged from 66% in the opiate group to over three-quarters (76%) of the non-opiates and alcohol group.

• For people with opiate problems who were injecting at the start of treatment, the average number of days of injecting dropped from 20.4 days per month at the start of treatment to 8.3 days per month at the 6-month review.
• The proportion of people in treatment for cocaine and other drugs have increased over the same period (increases of 5 percentage points and 2 percentage points respectively since 2015 to 2016).
• Nearly half (49%, 5,120) of children and young people who started treatment in 2023 to 2024 said they needed mental health treatment.
• The NDTMS treatment figures only show us how many people dependent on alcohol and drugs are in treatment.

The median age of people in treatment in the 4 substance groups ranged from 47 for the alcohol only group to 32 for non-opiates only. There were 310,863 adults aged 18 and over in contact with drug and alcohol treatment services between April 2023 and March 2024. This is a 7% rise compared to the previous year (290,635), the largest rise in adults in treatment since 2008 to 2009, and the highest number of adults in treatment since 2009 to 2010. Over one-third of people (36.5%) aged 16 to 59 years who used cannabis in the last 12 months used the drug more than once a month, with 10.4% using it every day. Around 8.0% of people aged 16 to 59 years who used powder cocaine and 2.2% of people who used ecstasy reported using these drugs frequently (more than once a month), similar to the previous year. The total number of people who died while in contact with treatment services in 2024 to 2025 was 4,273, or 1.3% of all adults in treatment.