DRUG-related deaths in England and Wales remain at a record level, with official figures showing 2019 had the highest number registered in more than a quarter of a century, and the North-East tops the list for deaths from drug misuse.

The North-East had a statistically significantly higher rate of deaths relating to drug misuse than all other English regions.

It was almost three times as high as the area with the lowest rate in 2019.

Nationally, there were 4,393 deaths related to drug poisoning registered last year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

This is a small rise from the 4,359 drug-related deaths registered in 2018 – the highest figure since records began in 1993.

There were 95 deaths per million people in the North-East, compared to 33.6 deaths per million people in the East of England.

Two-thirds of the deaths were related to drug misuse.

Rates have been higher in the most deprived areas over the last decade.

Professor Julia Sinclair, chairwoman of the Addictions Faculty of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said drug-related deaths are preventable but years of cuts have left services ill-equipped and under-resourced.

The death rates of people in their forties living in the most deprived areas were at least five-and-a-half times higher than those in the least deprived, the ONS said.

The data shows that the drugs-related death rate of men was twice as high as that of women, with 104.7 deaths registered per million men, compared to 49.1 deaths per million women.

More than half of deaths with a known drug type involved opiates (2,160), while deaths involving cocaine increased for the eighth year in a row, by 7.7 per cent for male deaths and by 26.5 per cent for female deaths.

The data covers deaths registered in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic took hold.

Ben Humberstone, deputy director of health analysis and life events at the ONS, said: “The number of deaths due to drug poisoning registered in 2019 remains at a similar level to 2018.

“Almost half of all drug related deaths involved opiates such as heroin and morphine.

“However, cocaine deaths rose for the eighth consecutive year to their highest level.”

The ONS figures cover deaths involving controlled and non-controlled drugs, prescription and over-the-counter medications.

They also include accidents and suicides involving drugs, and complications such as deep vein thrombosis or septicaemia from intravenous drug use.

Around half of the deaths registered last year will have happened in previous years, due to the time it can take for an inquest to be completed, statisticians believe.

The death rate in England and Wales reached 76.7 deaths per million people in 2019, up from 46.6 deaths per million in 2012.

The drug-related death rate for women increased for the 10th year in a row, with the death rates involving drug misuse reaching a new high of 27.7 deaths per million.

Men accounted for two-thirds (2,968) of the registered deaths.

Those born in the 1960s and 1970s, known as Generation X, had the highest death rates from drug misuse over time, it added.

Death rates involving new psychoactive substances have remained stable, with 125 deaths registered in 2019, as have deaths involving fentanyl (59).

Miss Sinclair said: “Loss of addiction psychiatry expertise through lack of training places and community services often being split from the NHS are only making things worse, with patients with multiple health needs no longer getting joined-up care.

“The tragic number of drug-related deaths should be all the evidence the Government needs to substantially invest in addiction services, before more lives are needlessly lost.”