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Speaking at the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the Glasgow safe drug consumption facility (SDCF), the UK government has confirmed that it does not support safe drug consumption rooms.
Minister for policing and crime prevention, Dame Diana Johnson, told the inquiry, on 4 June 2025: “I really want to be clear with you: we do not support drug consumption facilities. It is not our policy and we will not be amending the Misuse of Drugs Act.”
SDCFs are legally sanctioned or tolerated facilities where individuals can consume their own drugs under the supervision of trained staff who can intervene to prevent fatal overdose.
When pushed on why the Westminster government would not want to roll out consumption rooms if the Glasgow SDCF — known as ‘The Thistle’ — was successful, Johnson said: “As I understand it, it is a pilot. It has to be evaluated and there has to be evidence produced. I am not sure that that will be available within a year. As I understand the evidence that you have received, the interim evaluation will be available in two and a half years’ time.
“With the greatest of respect, this is not a UK government policy. It is something that the Scottish government have decided to do but it does not have legal basis within the Misuse of Drugs Act,” she said.
Johnson added that the UK government “is very clear that there are a number of measures that can be used” to tackle drug misuse, including naloxone kits, drug checking and heroin-assisted treatment.
“For the UK government, we want to work with the Scottish government in sharing the good practice and looking at what works.”
Also present at the session, Neil Gray, cabinet secretary for health and social care for the Scottish government, said that authorities in other parts of Scotland had expressed interest in opening SDCFs.
In response to a question on whether he would like to see the facilities rolled out across Scotland, Gray said: “I have already had interest … in Edinburgh and from other parts of Scotland where there may be proposals to come forward, but that is for those local partnerships to establish.
“That is for them to come forward with that proposal to do so in the same way that Glasgow did. That does not necessitate having to wait until the end of the Glasgow pilot. That could happen before then, but it is for those local areas to come forward with their own proposals and for those to be judged on the same merits that the Glasgow proposal was,” he added.
Coinciding with the facility’s launch, the Commons Scottish Affairs Committee launched an inquiry to examine the case for the facility, as well as its medical effectiveness in reducing drug-related harm in Scotland.
The Thistle opened on 13 January 2025 after gaining approval from the Glasgow City Integration Joint Board in September 2023.
Latest service data on The Thistle, published by Glasgow City Health and Social Partnership, show that the service was accessed 737 times in May 2025, a 13% decrease on the previous month when the service was accessed 847 times.
According to the data recorded by the SDCF between January and April 2025, use of the service increased over the first three months — from 336 times in January to 864 times in March 2025 — before dropping slightly in April 2025.
Data on injecting episodes show there were 451 injecting episodes at the facility in May 2025, compared with 610 in April 2025.
The facility has been accessed 3,468 times in total since opening, with a total of 2,461 injecting episodes taking place.
In his evidence to the committee, Gray said there had been 35 medical emergencies at the centre.
“In all cases, the service user has survived to be able to return to the facility,” he said.
“Although I cannot prove it at this stage, my contention is that, were those service users not within The Thistle, they would not have survived, so we have seen early evidence to suggest that the facility is working.”
