National drug and alcohol treatment waiting times
1 October 2025 to 31 December 2025

About this release

This quarterly release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) reports on waiting times for people accessing specialist drug and alcohol treatment services between 1 October and 31 December 2025.

In 2011, the Scottish Government set a Standard that 90% of people referred for help with problematic drug or alcohol use will wait no longer than three weeks for specialist treatment that supports their recovery.

Data are presented by NHS Board of treatment. Trend data for selected indicators are available in the publication dashboard. As of this release, the term 'co-dependency', describing problematic use of both alcohol and drugs, has been replaced with 'alcohol and drugs'.

Across Scotland, two out of 192 specialist treatment services were excluded from this release due to incomplete data. Findings reported here refer only to those services who provided complete data. See the Data Quality document for more information.

Main points

During the quarter ending 31 December 2025:

• 10,863 referrals were made to community-based specialist drug and alcohol treatment services, a decrease of 10.9% from the previous quarter (12,195). Lower numbers of referrals in each quarter ending December reflect reduced service availability during the festive period.
• Of the 10,863 referrals, 5,046 (46.5%) were for problematic use of alcohol, 4,124 (38.0%) for problematic use of drugs, and 1,693 (15.6%) for problematic use of both alcohol and drugs.
• 6,977 referrals to community-based services started treatment, a decrease of 6.2% from the previous quarter (7,440). Of those starting treatment, 92.7% (6,469) involved a wait of three weeks or less, compared with 94.3% in the previous quarter. Five NHS Boards did not meet the Standard (Tayside, 88.2%; Highland, 84.2%; Lothian, 83.2%; Western Isles, 81.0%; Shetland, 80.0%).
• Nationally, the Standard was met for referrals to community-based services across all substances: drugs (95.3%), alcohol and drugs (92.6%) and alcohol (90.8%).
• 727 referrals were made to prison-based services, a decrease of 11.4% from the previous quarter (821). Of these, 603 (82.9%) were for problematic use of drugs, 92 (12.7%) for problematic use of both alcohol and drugs, and 32 (4.4%) for problematic use of alcohol.
• 287 referrals to prison-based services started treatment, a decrease of 17.3% from the previous quarter (347). Of these, 96.9% (278) involved a wait of three weeks or less, compared with 89.9% in the previous quarter. All nine NHS Boards with prison-based services met the Standard.
• Nationally, the Standard was met for referrals to prison-based services across all substances: alcohol (100.0%), drugs (97.2%) and alcohol and drugs (94.3%).

As of 31 December 2025:

• 2,149 community-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 537 (24.9%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.
• 62 prison-based service referrals had not started treatment. Of these, 48 (77.4%) involved a wait of more than three weeks.

Bar chart illustrating the percentage of community referrals completed within three weeks against the Standard of 90% for each NHS Board in the quarter ending 31 December 2025. Scotland overall achieved 92.7%. Five NHS Boards did not meet the Standard with Tayside at 88.2%, Highland at 84.2%, Lothian at 83.2%, Western Isled at 81.0%, and Shetland at 80.0%.

Close

Percentage of completed community referrals with a wait of three weeks or less, by NHS Board (1 October 2025 to 31 December 2025)

Background

These data were extracted from the Drug and Alcohol Information System (DAISy) and its predecessor the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times (DATWT) database. DAISy has been available in all NHS Boards from April 2021 and replaced two previous systems: the DATWT database and the Scottish Drug Misuse Database (SDMD).

DAISy and its predecessors hold data in relation to specialist drug and alcohol treatments and waiting times from services throughout Scotland delivering tier 3 and 4 specialist drug and alcohol interventions, namely structured community, and residential treatment. Treatment services report to Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs), which are multi-agency groups tasked by the Scottish Government with tackling alcohol and drug issues through partnership working. Scotland's 30 ADPs submit DAISy data to PHS through a secure web system.

In 2011, the Scottish Government set a Standard that 90% of people referred for help with problematic drug or alcohol use will wait no longer than three weeks for specialist treatment that supports their recovery. A key function of this publication is to report on compliance with the Standard.

For more information on publication context, terminology, metadata and early access details, see the Background Information document.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 30 June 2026.