A UK Government minister has branded safe consumption rooms a "distraction" ahead of a summit on drugs deaths in Glasgow. 

The city's council has repeatedly appealed to the Home Office to allow a safer consumption room to be opened in Glasgow in a bid to address the increasing number of drug deaths being recorded in Scotland. However, the department has consistently ruled out such a plan. 

Safer consumption rooms allow drug users to use substances under the supervision of medical professionals and receive support to beat their addictions. 

Now Kit Malthouse, the Police and Crime Minister in Whitehall, has cast doubt on the success of safer consumption rooms - calling their results "mixed". 

The minister, who was in Glasgow ahead of a Westminster-led summit on tackling problem drug use, spoke to the BBC's Good Morning Scotland. 

READ MORE: What are drug consumption rooms and how do they work?

He said: "This is a complicated problem and there is no silver bullet solution to this.
"To me, drug consumption rooms are a bit of a distraction. If you look around the world at the research ... actually the bulk of people who are dying from consumption need treatment, alongside education, and help and support over a long period.

"And that is really where the game is.

"One of the issues in politics is people do reach for a simple solution, and, while drug consumption rooms have been used around the world, to a variable degree, and the research is mixed, even if we were to start it would take some time to get them in place. They're quite small-scale and the scale of the problem certainly in Scotland demands a much more assertive approach.

"I think it is a distraction. We're not convinced yet that the evidence is there."

Safer consumption rooms have been implemented in countries like Canada and Australia, and have support from the Scottish Government. 

Yesterday's Holyrood-led summit on drug deaths heard Glasgow City Council's leader Susan Aitken warn the facilities are necessary to tackle an "unprecedented spike" in deaths related to drugs. 

Despite ruling out safer consumption rooms, Malthouse said there is a need for "radical thinking" on drug deaths, adding a "three-track approach" needs to be taken.

He said: "We can have enforcement on supply, we do need to look at treatment that works, and then we have to have an education programme that highlights, particularly to younger people, who are possibly are getting more and more drawn into drugs, what the dangers are.

"It is a much more complicated picture than just clinging to one simple solution."