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Handguns

Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) illegally held handguns and (b) legally held handguns have been handed in since 1 May 1997. [86746]

Mr. Boateng: Information on the number of illegally or legally held handguns handed in to the police on a routine basis is not kept centrally.

Following the passage of the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997, which prohibited large and small-calibre handguns, a total of 162,198 handguns were surrendered to the police in England, Scotland and Wales.

Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents involving handguns have been recorded for each month since May 1997. [86745]

Mr. Boateng: The figures for notifiable offences recorded by the police in which handguns were reported to have been used in England and Wales since 1 May 1997 are set out in the table. The figures for 1998 are provisional and currently available for only the first three months of the year.

Month	Number of offences
1997
May	214
June	208
July	212
August	212
September	183
October	216
November	237
December	266
1998
January	216
February	201
March	210

15 Jun 1999 : Column: 104

Justice and Home Affairs Council

Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on 27 and 28 May, in respect of the draft Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in so far as this relates to the interception of communications, indicating what position the Government advocated. [86435]

Mr. Straw: No agreement was reached at the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 27 and 28 May on the interception of communications provisions in the draft Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters. The Council agreed that the outstanding issues should be referred to the Article 36 Committee. The Government's position remains as set out in my reply given to the right hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (Mr. Maclean) on 23 March 1999, Official Report, column 176.

Royal Escort Costs

Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many (a) police and (b) other security officers were deployed to escort the royal party to the Chelsea Flower Show in May; and what was the cost of this operation; [86751]

(2) what his policy is in respect of security protection for members of the Royal Family other than the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, their offspring, and Princes Henry and William; and what was the cost of security protection for those members of the Royal Family not listed above for the last year for which figures are available. [86750]

Mr. Boateng: We seek to ensure the most effective and efficient protective arrangements for the Royal Family and other public figures in the light of the changing threat from terrorism and other continuing risks. It is our policy not to comment on the details of protection arrangements for individuals, as to do so could compromise their security.

Ministerial Visits

Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the visit of the Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Knowsley, North and Sefton, East (Mr. Howarth), to Shamrock Farm on 15 December 1998 was unannounced. [86885]

Mr. George Howarth: The visit was made by appointment. I do not believe it would be appropriate for me to visit establishments unannounced, but members of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Inspectorate do make unannounced visits.

Metropolitan Police (Advertising)

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the cost of the advertisement placed by the Metropolitan Police in the London Evening Standard on 9 June. [87109]

Kate Hoey: The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police tells me that the advertisement cost £11,000.

15 Jun 1999 : Column: 105

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the Metropolitan Police spent on (a) recruitment advertising and (b) general advertising in each of the last three years; and what is the budget for the current year. [87110]

Kate Hoey: The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has provided the following information:

£

Year	Other advertising	Recruitment advertising
1996-97	620,000	862,000
1997-98	659,872	859,000
1998-99	782,236	1,598,945
1999-2000	915,000	1,565,000

Access to Government Information

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to publish the 1998 report on the operation of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. [87105]

Mr. Straw: I hope to be in a position to publish the 1998 Monitoring Report, on the operation of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, shortly. Publication of the Monitoring Report has been delayed due to work on the draft Freedom of Information Bill.

Prisoners (Drugs)

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the per capita figures for the use of neuroleptic drugs in each women's prison; and what percentage of prisoners in each women's prisons are users, at least weekly, of tranquillisers and pain killers. [86952]

Mr. George Howarth: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave him on 26 October 1998, Official Report, columns 59-60.

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his estimate of the numbers and percentage of prisoners who will be participating in drug treatment programmes in each of the next 10 years. [86956]

Mr. George Howarth: It is not possible to make any meaningful estimate at this stage. Implementation of the Prison Service drug strategy will allow projections to be made at the end of this financial year, once measurement and monitoring systems have been established.

Cannabis

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of annual cost of imprisoning cannabis offenders in each of the past four years for which figures are available. [86949]

Mr. George Howarth: The cost of imprisonment for cannabis offenders is not calculated separately from other offenders. The information in the table gives an average cost per place for all prisoners. Cost per place for 1998-99 is provisional and subject to validation by prisons.

15 Jun 1999 : Column: 106

Average cost per place for prisoners

Financial year	Cost per place (£ cash terms)	Cost per place (1992-93 prices)
1995-96	24,178	22,562
1996-97	24,271	21,975
1997-98	23,940	21,152
1998-99	25,096	21,633

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects the report on the experiments on the efficacy of medicinal cannabis to be published. [86945]

Mr. George Howarth: Information from G W Pharmaceuticals Ltd., the company licensed to conduct cannabis medical research, indicates that clinical trials are scheduled to start in mid-July. These are likely to continue for one or two years. Publication of results is a matter for the research community.

Prisons (Random Drug Tests)

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effect of random drugs tests in prisons on the use of (a) cannabis, (b) cocaine and (c) heroin. [86958]

Mr. George Howarth: The table sets out the percentages of random mandatory drug test (MDT) samples that have tested positive in each of the last three financial years. It is not possible to attribute any changes entirely to the MDT programme. Supply reduction and treatment programmes also impact on the level of drug misuse in prisons.

Percentage of random mandatory drug tests positive for cannabis, heroin and cocaine

Drug type	1996-97	1997-98	1998-99
Cannabis	19.9	16.5	14
Opiates (including heroin)	5.4	4.2	4.4
Cocaine	0.2	0.2	0.3

Drug Use

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what forecasts he has made of the levels of use of (a) cannabis, (b) cocaine and (c) heroin in June 2002 relative to the figures for June 1997. [86953]

Mr. Boateng: None. The targets set recently under the drugs strategy by the United Kingdom Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator include reducing by 20 per cent. by 2002 the numbers of 11-16 year-olds who use Class A drugs.

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