FOI reference: FOI-2025-3180
You asked
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I request drug misuse rates and substance use disorder data for 2019-2025 (specifically for Cannabis, Cocaine, Ketamine, Alcohol, Heroin) indexed separately for every borough in London. Please categorise the data by year, drug type and London borough. If possible, please provide data for all the drugs you have data for.
We said
Thank you for your request.
The crime team produce statistics from two main data sources, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and Police Recorded Crime (PRC).
Data from the CSEW on the extent and trends of illicit drug use can be found in our latest Drug misuse in England and Wales – Appendix table dataset. The lowest geography that we produce CSEW crime data by is region. Table 3.07 of this dataset provides a timeseries of the proportion of 16 to 59-year-olds who reported use of illicit drugs in the last year by region, which you may find useful.
The lowest geographical level at which we produce police recorded crime data is the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) area, which typically aligns with local authority boundaries. We do not hold data at a more granular level. You can access police recorded crime statistics by CSP area in our Crime in England and Wales: Police Force Area data tables. These tables include figures on drug offences, although they do not break down offences by specific drug type.
Unfortunately, a breakdown of CSEW data by London Borough is not held, as it would need to be created. This would involve complex statistical processing requiring specialist expertise to determine appropriate methodologies for small sample analysis, apply statistical adjustments and weighting techniques, and make informed judgements about the reliability and validity of estimates derived from limited data points. We have not previously created this analysis, as the sample size is not robust enough to provide reliable estimates.
If you have any further crime-related queries, please email the ONS Centre for Crime and Justice at CrimeStatistics@ons.gov.uk.