Previous Section Home Page

Column 534

Northern Ireland

Mr. J. Burrow

Mr. W. Lawrence

The Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales Mr. D. Clark

Mr. D. Parkinson

Mr. V. Jones

The Police Federation for England and Wales

Mr. L. Williams

Mr. R. Coyles

Mr. R. Penn

Mr. A. Mason

Mr. J. Moseley

Mr. R. Oakley

Mr. G. Hyde

Mr. S. Cadmore

Mr. F. Broughton

Mr. D. Forsyth

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Scotland)

Mr. P. Mitchell

The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents

Mr. J. Johnston

The Scottish Police Federation

Mr. J. MacDonald

Mr. J. Marshall

Mr. I. Black

Mr. D. Keil

Mr. J. Fraser

Mr. S. Falconer

The Superintendents Association of Northern Ireland

Mr. W. Davidson

Miss A. Donald

The Police Federation for Northern Ireland

Mr. D. McClurg

Mr. S. Beattie

Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who are the members currently appointed to the Fire Services Research and Training Trust.

Mr. Charle Wardle : The trustees are as follows :

Mr. R. F. D. Shuffrey, CB, CVO, Chairman, formerly a Home Office Deputy Under-Secretary of State.

Mr. W. Baird, a former Assistant Under-Secretary of State in the Scottish Office.

Sir Kenneth Holland, CBE, QFSM, formerly Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Fire Services.

Mr. P. Quaile, recently retired as Deputy Chief General Manager of Sun Alliance and as Chairman of the Fire Protection Association. Mr. I. Roy, a former Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office.

Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who are the members currently appointed to the Advisory Council on Race Relations.

Mr. Peter Lloyd : The members of the Home Secretary's Advisory Council on Race Relations are as follows :

Representative Members :

Mr. R. Gilbert (Confederation of British Industries)

Dr. S. Deshmukh (Trades Union Congress)

Mr. S. Gillings (National Association of Racial Equality Councils)

Mr. R. Govindia (London Boroughs Association)

Councillor T. Harris (Association of Metropolitan Authorities) Mr. H. Ouseley (Commission for Racial Equality)

Councillor R. Place (Association of District Councils)

Vacancy (Association of County Councils)

Individual Members

Mrs. S. Ahmed


Column 535

Ms B. Bernard

Mr. D. Bryan

Mr. T. Chan

Mrs. R. Howells

Mr. C. Kavallares

Mr. R. Mooneram

Mr. D. Neil

Mr. J. O'Loughlin

Councillor M. Rizvi

Mr. I. Sacranie

Ms A. Weekes

Prisons (Drug Abuse)

Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research the Home Office has undertaken to determine the degree to which alcohol and illicit drug abuse is taking place in prisons ; what change the figures represent on previous records ; and what steps he has taken recently, or intends to take, in order to combat such abuse.

Mr. Peter Lloyd : Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from A. J. Butler to Mr. Frank Field, dated11 February 1994 :

The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about the research which has been undertaken to determine the degree to which alcohol and illicit drug abuse is taking place in prisons ; what change the figures represent on previous records ; and what steps he has taken recently or intends to take in order to combat such abuse. It is extremely difficult to establish with any satisfactory degree of certainty the degree to which alcohol and illicit drug abuse is taking place in prisons. This is because prisoners are understandably reluctant to admit to contravening prison rules. Most research has therefore focused on the use of alcohol and drugs by prisoners before they were imprisoned. A survey of 1,751 men serving a prison sentence (Maden, Swinton and Gunn, British Journal of Addiction 1992) showed that in 1988-89 43 per cent. of male sentenced prisoners had used drugs in the six months before their arrest. In the report "Mentally Disorderded Offenders" which was produced for the Prison Service by the same authors found alcohol and drug dependency (diagnosed on the basis of daily use during the six month period prior to their offence) as in the table below. The figures do not include cannabis users.


                    |Adult males|Young      |Females                

                                |offenders                          

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Sample size         |1,365      |404        |273                    

Alcohol (per cent.) |8.6        |8.7        |4.4                    

Drugs (per cent.)   |10.1       |6.2        |24.2                   

Research is currently being conducted for the Prison Service by the Drugs Addiction Unit at the Institute of Psychiatry to establish risk behaviour for HIV in prisons. This includes questions about current drug use which, if a satisfactory response rate is achieved, should provide better information on illicit drug use.

The availability and use of drugs in our prisons is a matter of concern. The Government will be bringing forward a clause for inclusion in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill to allow the Prison Service to test prisoners for drug misuse. In addition to this the Prison Service is reviewing existing policy relating to drugs and is developing a Drug Strategy which will address ways of reducing the supply of drugs, of reducing demand (by means of improved indentification and treatment for drug misusers) and improved support for prisoners who have become drug free in prison on their return to the community.


Column 536

Race Relations

Mr. Winnick : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consideration has been given to the taking of legal action under the Race Relations Acts against the Hizb ut Tahrir organisation.

Mr. Peter Lloyd [holding answer 10 February 1994] : There is no legal action under the Race Relations Act 1976 which requires the involvement of the Attorney-General. Offences of incitement to racial hatred are covered by part III of the Public Order Act 1986 for which the Attorney-General's consent is required before a case can proceed.

TRANSPORT

Operator Licensing

Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the local authorities that responded to his consultation document on deregulation of operator licensing and those that opposed the proposals.

Mr. Key : The 46 local authorities which responded to our consultation document are listed in the table. We made a number of proposals. The reaction to them was varied.

1. Three Rivers District Council, Herts

2. Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

3. Blaenau Borough Council, Gwent

4. Dacorum Borough Council, Herts

5. Mole Valley District Council, Dorking

6. Milton Keynes Borough Council

7. Gedling Borough Council

8. West Devon Borough Council

9. Hastings Borough Council

10. Runnymede Borough Council

11. South Lakeland District Council

12. Wiltshire County Council

13. Newbury District Council

14. Runnymede Borough Council

15. Weymouth and Portland Borough Council

16. Birmingham City Council

17. Rother District Council

18. Worcester City Council

19. Cherwell District Council

20. Derbyshire County Council

21. Mid-Beds District Council

22. North Kesteven District Council

23. Devon County Council

24. Avon County Council

25. Newark and Sherwood District Council

26. Kent County Council

27. Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority

28. Nottingham City Council

29. Norfolk Planning County Council

30. Babergh District Council

31. Bedfordshire County Council

32. New Forest District Council

33. Bawtry Town Council

34. Swansea City Council

35. South Norfolk District Council

36. Lincoln City Council

37. Copeland Borough Council

38. Lewes District Council

39. Southampton City Council

40. Bedfordshire County Council

41. Great Yarmouth Borough Council

42. Winchester City Council

43. London Borough of Wandsworth

44. Shropshire County Council

45. Suffolk County Council

46. Burnley Borough Council


Next Section

  Home Page