This release by Public Health Scotland presents information on the provision of injecting equipment. This includes the number of outlets, attendances and the types of injecting equipment distributed to people who inject illicit drugs (including Novel Psychoactive Substances and Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs) in Scotland in 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20.

Main points

• In 2019/20, there were a total of 281 Injecting Equipment Provision outlets in Scotland, of which 214 (76%) were located in pharmacies and the remaining 67 (24%) were part of other services (for example, specialist drug treatment providers).
• In 2019/20, there were 215,957 attendances reported by Injecting Equipment Provision outlets, 17% fewer than in 2018/19 (259,746). Over three-quarters (78%) of those attending were male.
• Approximately 3.1 million needles and syringes were distributed by participating outlets in 2019/20, this was 14% lower than in 2018/19 (approximately 3.6 million).
• Nationally, an average of 54 needles and syringes were distributed per estimated ‘problem drug user’ in 2019/20, a decrease of 14% compared to 2018/19 (64).