Ketamine in Schools

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FIN/25/003310/Q

Version Date: 24/06/2025

The Performance Analysis Department have provided the following information.

I would like to request details of when the police have investigated allegations relating to ketamine in schools.

Please can you give me figures and reports for each of the academic years (September 1 to July 31) for 2033/2023, 2023/2024 and as much of 2024/25 as possible.

For each year:

How many times has the force investigated an allegation relating to ketamine in a school?

2. One in 2024 and one in 2025. However, please note:

Performance Analysis searched within Niche for the timeframes provided for occurrences with the following criteria

• Occurrence Summary containing the term ‘ketamin’ OR
• OEL Entry text containing the term ‘ketamin’ OR
• Drug type field matching ‘Ketamine’ AND
• Location Subtype of one of the following ‘School’ or ‘Other (education)’ or ‘College’ OR
• Occ. Add. Common Name containing ‘college’ or ‘school’ or ‘academy’ OR
• Occ. Add. Building Name containing ‘college’ or ‘school’ or ‘academy’

This returned 32 occurrences across all years which they have manually reviewed to determine whether they were relevant. Many related to third-party reports of people taking ketamine outside of school hours and away from the school, so these have not been included. Additionally, some were false positives (locations such as O2 Academy or street name ‘School Close’).

This left two occurrences. The first was an assault in a school (student v. student) where the suspect stated that the victim had been taking ketamine in the school toilets. There was no further police investigation into this matter, thus the suspect named is not in relation to the drugs. The second was a child who had worn a coat into school which had previously been used by an older sibling with ketamine powder having been left in the pocket. The suspect in this one is the older brother and nothing to do with the school.

Please provide a summary of the MO section of the incident report with any personal data redacted.

Please provide the age and sex of a child said to have been in possession of Ketamine.

Performance Analysis searched in Niche for the following SC Descriptions:

• Possess a controlled drug of Class B - Ketamine (recordable)
• Possess a controlled drug of Class C - Ketamine (recordable)
• Possess with intent to supply a controlled drug of Class B - Ketamine (recordable)
• Possess with intent to supply a controlled drug of Class C - Ketamine (recordable)

And using the location criteria as per point one in relation to schools, this was a nil return.

Please specify the age and sex of a child accused of selling Ketamine.

Nil return.

Please specify how many children have been hospitalised due to suspected Ketamine abuse? In each case please provide their age and sex.

Nil return.

How many children died after taking ketamine?

Nil return.

How many were arrested? Please provide the age and sex in each case and what they were arrested on suspicion of?

In relation to the relevant two occurrences, there were no arrests.

How many were charged? What was their age and sex and what were they charged with?

Nil return.