Nicola Singleton

Nicola is Director of Policy and Research at the UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC), which is a charitably-funded organisation established to provide objective analysis of UK drug policy and encourage greater use of evidence in drug policy and practice. The UKDPC had considered the evidence within a range of areas, including projects looking at taking a harm-focused approach to enforcement and highlighting the impact of stigma towards drug users and their families on their recovery and the course of their drug problems. The findings from all this research has been pulled together in a recent report entitled A Fresh Approach to Drugs and this is being complemented by a final project looking at the structures and process by which drug policy is made in the UK and how these might be improved.

Nicola joined UKDPC from the Home Office in June 2007. During the previous four years, while at the Home Office, she had responsibility for research and performance monitoring across the full range of drug policy areas.  Prior to this, Nicola worked at the Office for National Statistics conducting a range of national surveys and research studies of mental health and drug use and as a researcher in a local health authority in the field of public health.