On 11 March 2021, a ministerial meeting of the Misuse of Substances work sector of the British–Irish Council (BIC) was held online. The Irish Government is the lead administration for this strand of work. The meeting was chaired by Frank Feighan TD, Minister of State for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy. The meeting was also attended by ministers from the Northern Ireland Executive, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, and the British Government.¹

In August 2020, the Law Reform Commission (LRC) published a report on suspended sentences.¹ The report, which was carried out as part of the Fourth Programme of Law Reform, examines how the principles of suspended sentences are operated and applied in Ireland. It builds on the LRC 2017 document, Issues paper: Suspended sentences.² The overall aim of the report is to improve and supplement these principles from a practical and procedural perspective (p. 11).¹

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) published the European drug report 2021: trends and developments¹ on 9 June 2021. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview and summary of the European drug situation up to the end of 2020. The analysis offered in the report must be regarded as preliminary due to the impact of Covid-19. The Health Research Board (HRB) provides the Irish data and research for the EMCDDA report.