About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) presents information on the number of take-home naloxone kits issued by the National Naloxone Programme (NNP) in Scotland (October to December 2025/26). Figures are presented separately for kits issued from community-based services (mainly specialist drug treatment and non-drug treatment services), kits issued in prisons at the point of liberation, kits dispensed via community prescription, and kits issued by Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS).

Accidental overdose is a common cause of death among users of heroin, morphine and similar drugs, which are referred to as opioids. Naloxone is a drug which reverses the effects of a potentially fatal overdose with these drugs.

Main points

During 2025/26 Quarter 3 (1 October 2025 to 31 December 2025):

• 9,552 Take-Home Naloxone (THN) kits were issued.
• 7,747 THN kits were issued by services based in the community:
  • 4,668 kits supplied by drug treatment services;
  • 1,180 kits supplied by other non-drug treatment services;
  • 1,121 kits supplied by Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs (SFAD).
• 515 kits were issued by prisons in Scotland.
• 957 kits were supplied via prescriptions dispensed by community pharmacies.
• 307 THN kits were provided by SAS.
• A total of 602 kits (351 in prisons and 251 in the community) were supplied by peers (a trained champion/mentor that provides training and a THN kit to others who may witness an overdose).

At the end of 2025/26 Quarter 3, the 'reach' of the NNP (percentage of people at risk of opioid overdose who have been supplied with THN) was estimated to be 87.5%, an increase of 1.7 percentage points compared to 2025/26 Quarter 2 (85.8%).

Chart showing the number of take-home naloxone kits supplied for each financial quarter from April to June 2011 up to October to December 2025. It shows that there has been an increase over time in Naloxone provision, with a particularly large increase in quarter 1 of financial year 2020/21 and quarter 3 of financial year 2021/22. The first three quarters of 2025/26 have also shown a notable increase in take home naloxone kit distribution.

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Number of Take-Home Naloxone kits supplied by financial year and quarter

Background

The overall aim of Scotland’s NNP is to prevent fatal opioid overdoses. Administration of naloxone provides time for emergency services to arrive and for further treatment to be given. Following suitable training, THN kits are issued to people at risk of opioid overdose (based on self-identification or service assessment at the time of naloxone supply), their friends and family and service workers in order to help prevent overdose deaths. For more information on the background of the NNP and for a definition of 'reach', see Appendix 1 in the National Naloxone Programme Scotland Official Statistics report.

In November 2023, the Naloxone Reporting Short Life Working Group (SLWG) set out recommendations to improve naloxone data collection, reporting and oversight. A number of changes are being introduced to naloxone reporting to reflect the SLWG’s recommendations and to ensure outputs remain efficient, sustainable and fit for purpose. These include updates to specific indicators and a transition from the current quarterly bulletin style publication to an interactive dashboard. This dashboard development means that the next quarterly monitoring bulletin publication (planned for 8th September 2026) will consist of a Publication Summary and Data Tables only, while the dashboard is being developed and refined. Further information is provided in Appendix 1 of the main report.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be 8 September 2026.