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Mrs. Ann Winterton (Congleton): Conservative Members welcome the publication of the first drugs annual report and action plan by the United Kingdom anti-drugs co-ordinator. I thank the Minister for allowing me to have a copy a little earlier this afternoon: I much appreciated that.
The report sets out targets for the short, medium and long term, and encourages Departments and agencies to work in partnership at both local and national level. It must be said, however, that the very sharpness of the targets in the report contrasts markedly with the lack of clarity in the baseline of the underlying problem.
The whole House remains supportive of the four objectives outlined in last year's White Paper, "Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain": to reduce the use of illegal drugs by young people, to protect our communities from drug-related crime, to provide effective drug treatment programmes and to stifle the availability of drugs on the streets.
The drug problem in the United Kingdom often appears intractable, and, sadly, appears to be growing. The supply of, for example, heroin and cocaine is increasing, while the street price of those and other drugs is falling. In the statement, the Government expressed their intention of focusing more on class A drugs. Will the Minister confirm, however, that they have no plans to decriminalise the use of cannabis or other class B drugs? Will he reaffirm that to take any illegal substance is plainly wrong, addictive and dangerous?
We know that young people aged between 10 and 17 are being targeted by pushers, and that the number of those taking hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine is rising. We support all steps to protect young peoplefrom those who peddle drugs--including their contemporaries--by ensuring that they have the knowledge and social skills to withstand peer pressure. Education directed at prevention is vital, and must receive the full support and involvement of parents and families. Does the Minister agree, however, that young people who are older--old enough to vote, for instance, or to leave home--having been taught the difference between right and wrong, must accept responsibility for their actions? The buck stops with each individual, and we must not make excuses for their illegal drug-taking.
We welcome the targets announced for treatment programmes, including programmes for people in prison, bearing in mind that at present there is a waiting time of approximately 15 weeks. Is the Minister confident that sufficient resources are available to deliver those ambitious targets? Will he comment on Professor Howard Parker's observation on the "Today" programme this morning that the new wave of drug-taking was unforeseen, that it would strain the Government's strategy, and that the Government might not reach some of their goals?
I recall that the drug treatment and testing orders were to be in the vanguard of the Government's policy. Does the Minister accept that take-up has been extremely poor? Only 67 orders have been made, of which 10 have been revoked, in the three pilot areas where hundreds, if not thousands, of drug cases have gone before the criminal courts. Is the Minister satisfied that the budget of £40 million for the scheme, when it is fully implemented next year, is enough, given that each order costs approximately £6,000? That means that only about 6,600 orders can be made throughout the United Kingdom.
The availability of drugs on our streets is growing. We acknowledge the Government's action in retaining 300 Customs and Excise officers, but does the Minister accept that there are continuing problems in the service, with a possible reduction of more than 1,000 jobs over the next three years, which will directly and adversely affect drug intelligence and anti-smuggling measures?
The United Kingdom has an advantage in being an island, so that drugs must arrive by sea or air, other than through the channel tunnel. That is in marked contrast to countries in mainland Europe, where border controls are noticeably absent. Customs officers are uniquely placed to detect drugs at ports, airports and around remote coastlines. Minor entry points are receiving a growing share of high-risk traffic. Why, therefore, are there to be reductions in the intelligence unit in the west country, and why is the highly successful Plymouth drug detection dog unit to be closed? Will that not have a direct impact on the growing availability of drugs on our streets?
The right hon. Gentleman asserted in his statement that there would be no abatement of efforts to pursue drug dealers. We endorse that statement wholeheartedly. At least 80 per cent. of intelligence development work is linked to drugs. Is the Minister satisfied that we have enough officers in the field overseas and enough police here to follow through that policy? Police numbers are falling, and that is a worrying trend.
In supporting the Government's objectives, I express the hope that words will be backed by deeds. The perception of people in the United Kingdom towards drugs policy is all important. They want to see effective deterrence to drug use and drug trafficking, and they want tough penalties to be imposed. They want their local communities to be cleaned up. They are looking to the House for a lead to show that there is no soft message on drugs. The war on drugs must be waged with energy, drive and commitment if we are to succeed in protecting our children from their insidious consequences.
Dr. Cunningham:
I am grateful for the hon. Lady's general welcome and support, and I agree with much of what she had to say. There is a problem with baseline information, as I said in my statement and as she emphasised. The information is not available because the situation and policies that we inherited were not focused, not co-ordinated and not based on any hard information. That is the reality that we discovered, and why we have taken time and are investing £6 million of new resources in trying to improve the robustness of the baseline figures.
The hon. Lady is absolutely right that it is essential that we do that. None of that work had been done. One of the plus points of developing a new strategy in this area is that we will obtain that information. We do not have robust baselines, but we know what the trends are, and, as the
hon. Lady said, they are in the wrong direction. We have some information to go on, but I want to be clear with everyone--as I have been in the interviews that I have given--that I believe that that is not good enough, and that we need to improve the credibility of the information on which we base our plans.
We have no plans or proposals to decriminalise cannabis. The hon. Lady rightly said that the public expect us to take the toughest possible line against drug abuse and the crime related to it. Therefore, I repeat that there will be no softening of policy in this area. She is quite right to say that all drugs present dangers to young people, which is why education, advice and support is so important.
This morning, Keith Hellawell and I visited Camden girls school. I pay tribute to and thank the head teacher, Geoffrey Fallows, and his staff. We saw excellent work being done with young people in this area. That work is essential, so we have allocated an extra £217 million for that aspect, and will progressively shift resources--the £1.4 billion that we currently spend on all drugs-related issues--in the direction of education, information, advice, treatment and rehabilitation and away from dealing merely with the consequences of drug abuse and drug-related crime.
The hon. Lady referred to young people over the age of 18. With their freedoms and rights must come responsibilities; they must face the consequences of their actions. However, the policy must try to prevent them from getting into trouble with drugs in the first place.
As we know, we have some of the toughest custodial sentencing policies of any country in Europe, but we still have one of the worst records on drugs-related problems of any country in Europe. It is not that the courts do not have strong powers; it is not that we have not already strengthened those powers--it is that we are not dealing with the root cause of the problem early enough. That is the biggest single argument for the shift in policy that we are bringing about.
I am pleased that the hon. Lady welcomed the setting of targets. I know that they will be difficult to achieve--no one knows that better than me; I have been looking at the matter for a year. However, without targets and without benchmarks against which we can gauge progress--or not--we will simply remain in the dark. We will not know whether policies are working, whether we need to adjust them, or whether we need to change the allocation of resources. We are taking something of a risk. We are exposing ourselves by setting those tough targets, but we must have something to aim at and against which to gauge the success, or otherwise, of our policies.
I did hear Professor Parker this morning, and there is something in what he says. Unhappily, although seizures of illegal drugs have increased tenfold, availability on the streets has not declined. We know that heroin is available at higher quality, in greater purity and cheaper than ever before. The increasing availability of class A drugs such as heroin poses a real threat to our young people. We have to get to grips with the problem.
Of course, the drug testing and treatment orders are in the early stages--
Mr. James Clappison (Hertsmere):
They only scratch the surface.
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