This report details a project undertaken by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing to develop a national Needle and Syringe Program data set and associated reporting instrument to facilitate consistent and comparable data collection and reporting. It provides a description of the methodology used and includes a copy of the data set and reporting instrument developed as part of the project. The report includes a number of recommendations regarding the future development and expansion of the data set. 'Developing a nationally consistent data set for needle and syringe programs' is the result of consultations with service providers, state and territory representatives and the Australian government.