Environment
Transport
Invasive Species
Energy
Indigenous, Minority and Lesser-Used Languages
Creative Industries
Social Inclusion
Planning and Places
Housing
Early Years
Drugs and Alcohol
Overview
The British-Irish Council (BIC) is committed to reducing the harms associated with drug and alcohol use by supporting collaboration between its eight Member Administrations, sharing evidence and best practice, and developing effective, evidence-based policies.
Through the Drugs and Alcohol Work Sector, the Council focuses on involving people with lived experience in service development, addressing drug use in prisons, supporting community action on alcohol-related harm, and facilitating peer learning on emerging drug and alcohol issues.
Lead Administration
The work sector is chaired by the Government of Ireland.
It was one of the first work sectors to be established during the British-Irish Council’s inaugural meeting in 1999.
Current Focus
In January 2024, at a ministerial meeting hosted by the Government of Ireland in Dublin, ministers agreed a programme of work focussing on:
- Supporting the involvement of people with lived experience in substance services
- Addressing drug use in prison
- Health-led approaches for people in possession of drugs for personal use
- Community action on alcohol (Collaboration with WHO European framework on action on alcohol)
- Peer reviews on topical drug and alcohol issues
Since that ministerial meeting, the work sector have been delivering a series of webinars exploring a wide range of priority issues, including the life-saving potential of naloxone, and the value of involving people with lived and living experience in the development of recovery services. The work sector has visited Dublin to gain a greater understanding of rehabilitation and treatment services, including a supervised injecting facility, and a further visit to Guernsey is now planned for later in 2026.
