National Mission on Drugs: Annual Monitoring Report 2024-2025
This third annual monitoring report provides an analysis of the progress made between April 2024 and March 2025 on the National Mission to reduce drug deaths and improve lives.
10. Data and methodology
10.1 Metric development
The metrics outlined under each of the National Mission outcomes were developed following a review of published data on drug deaths and harms in Scotland. This included a wide range of statistics published by the Scottish Government and agencies such as PHS and NRS under different designations (e.g. Accredited Official Statistics, Official Statistics, Official Statistics in Development, Management Information). The development of the metric set involved engagement with policy officials to understand current practice, requirements and opportunities. It also drew on the expertise of analysts in fields associated with substance use within the Scottish Government (e.g. health, criminal justice, education, children and families, and communities) and PHS.
The National Mission on Drugs Outcomes Framework: Monitoring Metrics technical paper identifies headline and supporting metrics for each of the framework’s outcomes. The headline metrics consist of the key measures to monitor the progress of the National Mission. The supporting metrics provide additional insight or context to support the interpretation of the headline metrics and understanding of progress. The technical information for each metric is also provided and includes a definition, rationale, data source and limitations. More detail on the methodology and the limitations of the data can be found in the National Mission on Drugs Outcomes Framework: Monitoring Metrics paper.
10.2 Limitations
Key limitations for each metric are described in the relevant individual metric section of this report. Further detail can be found in the National Mission on Drugs Outcomes Framework: Monitoring Metrics technical paper.
10.3 Attribution
A broad range of policies and initiatives have been introduced under the National Mission. Within the scope of this quantitative monitoring report, it is not possible to attribute any observed changes in individual outcomes to specific interventions. However, it is possible to explore individual metrics to understand whether changes have occurred since the start of the National Mission and, where available, to compare these with previous trends.
10.4 Drug deaths – Terminology and definitions
NRS use the term ‘drug misuse deaths’ in their drug death statistics, in line with UK usage. However, this monitoring report adopts the more neutral term ’drug deaths’ for the same figures to avoid potentially stigmatising language.
The definitions used for drug-related death statistics are consistent across the UK, but there are differences in data collection methods and death registration systems that affect these statistics and their comparability across nations. The ‘drug poisoning’ definition is the most accurate comparator across the UK and is used in the overarching outcome section. NRS published a helpful blog What actually counts as a drug death? that provides more details.
10.5 Quality
This report draws on published statistics from National Records of Scotland, Public Health Scotland and Scottish Government which have all been quality assured by their respective organisations. The report has been prepared and quality assured by Scottish Government statisticians in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.