The United Kingdom (UK) Focal Point on Drugs is based at Public Health England. It is the national partner of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and provides comprehensive information to the Centre on the drug situation in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The structure and content of this annual report are pre-determined by the EMCDDA to facilitate comparison with similar reports produced by the other European Focal Points. Ten chapters cover the same subjects each year.

Each of the first ten chapters begins with an Introduction. This sets the context for the remainder of the chapter, describing the main features of the topic under consideration within the United Kingdom. This may include information about the main legislative and organisational frameworks, sources of data and definitions used, the broad picture shown by the data and recent trends. The remainder of each chapter is concerned with New Developments and Trends that have not been included in previous annual reports. Generally, this covers developments that have occurred in the second half of 2012 or the first half of 2013. Relevant data that have become available during this period will also be discussed although these will often refer to earlier time periods.

This report, and the reports from the other European countries, will be used in the compilation of the EMCDDA’s annual report of the drug situation in the European Union and Norway to be published in 2014.