More than 13,000 heroin and opioid deaths have been missed off official statistics in England and Wales, raising concerns about the impact on the government's approach to tackling addiction.
Research from King's College London, shared exclusively with BBC News, found that there were 39,232 opioid-related deaths between 2011 and 2022, more than 50% higher than previously known.
The error has been blamed on the government's official statistics body not having access to correct data and it is understood ministers are now working with coroners to improve the reporting of deaths.
A former senior civil servant said fewer people might have died if drug policies had been based on accurate statistics.
The number of opioid deaths per million people in England and Wales has almost doubled since 2012, but this new study means the scale of the problem is likely to be even greater.
Researchers from the National Programme on Substance Use Mortality at King's used data from coroners' reports to calculate a more accurate estimate of opioid-related deaths.
Source: BBC News, 16 September 2025
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