In August 1962 the Ministry of Health announced it was forming a poisons information service. This was after the Emergency Treatment in Hospital of Cases of Acute Poisoning published by the Central Health Services Council in March 1962. Many more household chemicals were on the market, and the chemical composition was only known to the manufacturers. 4,000 to 5,000 people each year were lethally poisoned, with 6,085 in 1962; however, many of the deaths were (non-accidental) suicides.
It started in 1963 by Dr Roy Goulding at the Medical Toxicology Unit of Guy's Hospital, with a staff of 65. By the late 1960s, recreational drugs were presenting a widespread danger. Other centres were soon set up in Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff.
UKTIS was based in Newcastle from 1995.