| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Criminals (Confiscation of Assets)
4. Mr. Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham): What representations she has received from the performance and innovation unit on proposals to confiscate the assets of criminals. [124265]
The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Mr. Ian McCartney): I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave some moments ago to my hon. Friend the Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell).
Mr. Loughton: Will the Minister now answer the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for
Congleton (Mrs. Winterton) and confirm that powers to confiscate the assets of drug dealers were introduced under the previous Government by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard), and that the Prime Minister's recent pronouncements on the subject, before the PIU had reported to the House, were just a cynical and desperate attempt to seize back the agenda from the Conservative party, which has tough and common-sense policies on law and order, by a Government who talk tough on crime but act weak?
Mr. McCartney: The hon. Gentleman's comments show just how out of touch the Conservative party is. If he had read the report, he would realise that we are going further than the previous Government ever attempted. We are interested not just in drugs barons, but in all big-time criminals. The proposals will lead to the confiscation of their assets, whatever the crime--whether it is their house, cars, antiques, money or resources that they try to siphon off to members of their family. At last, the Government are on the side of the citizen and not, like Conservative Members, on the side of the criminal.
Madam Speaker: Order. The Minister might withdraw that last remark.
Mr. McCartney: I withdraw it, but it was in the context of the final comment made by the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Mr. Loughton). His party could have dealt with the matter but refused to do so.
Mr. Jim Murphy (Eastwood): In considering the seizing of criminal assets, will my right hon. Friend ensure that tough action and suspension of assets occur not at the end of a court case but at the beginning? Further to that, will confiscation of drug dealers' assets apply not just to drug dealers themselves, but to close family and close acquaintances, to whom money might have been siphoned off?
Mr. McCartney: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The issue is whether the assets are gained from illegal activity. Whatever assets criminals attempt to hide will not matter; if it is proven that they are the ill-gotten gains of criminal activity, we will seize them.
Knowledge Network
5. Mr. Dominic Grieve (Beaconsfield): If the information held on the knowledge network computer system will be available to the public on the internet. [124266]
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr. Graham Stringer): My right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office has made it clear in written answers to the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire
(Mr. Lansley) that as much information as possible that is held on the knowledge network will be made available to the public.
Mr. Grieve: I understood the right hon. Lady to tell the House on 8 March that all the information on the knowledge network would be put on the net. Indeed, she provided a precise reassurance to hon. Members to that effect. What or who has made her change her mind?
Mr. Stringer: All the information that it is possible to put on the net will be put on the net. Clearly, some of the information that will be held on the knowledge network will be commercially confidential, and it would be wrong of this Government or any other Government to make that information available on the net.
Mr. Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire): The hon. Gentleman has not answered my hon. Friend's question. The right hon. Lady said:
- All the work done in that unit will be put on the net so there will be no question of work being done that even the hon. Gentleman--
- will not see.--[Official Report, 8 March 2000; Vol. 345, c. 993.]
Mr. Stringer: The hon. Gentleman cannot possibly wish us to put commercially sensitive information on the net. The Government whom he supported did not do that. In his evidence to the Select Committee on Public Administration, Sir Richard Wilson, the Cabinet Secretary, made it clear that the knowledge network would not be used for party political purposes. [Interruption.] I am not surprised that the hon. Gentleman gets it wrong and carries on chuntering. He supports a party that left the Government's IT in the neolithic age. When the Conservative Government left office, it was not possible for Departments even to communicate with one another by e-mail, so it is not surprising that the hon. Gentleman is ignorant of what is going on.
Drugs Action Teams
6. Mr. Bob Blizzard (Waveney): What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of drugs action teams in shire counties. [124267]
The Minister for the Cabinet Office (Marjorie Mowlam): The effectiveness of drugs action teams is measured by an annual planning and reporting process based on plans and reports submitted by each drugs action team. The analysis of this year's plans and reports is currently under way and will be published shortly.
Mr. Blizzard: Does my right hon. Friend recognise that it is extremely difficult for a single anti-drugs co-ordinator to drive forward multi-agency work across a large shire county where the main population centres are spread around? Does she agree that we need additional sub-co-ordinators in population centres such as Lowestoft
in Suffolk to spearhead local action? Drugs are still a huge problem in town and country. Do we not need to do even more at local level, including allocating more money for treatment?
Marjorie Mowlam: As I said in answer to Question 1, we have already increased this year's spending, particularly for treatment. From the reports of the drugs action teams in my hon. Friend's constituency, it is clear that increased provision for treatment is desperately needed. That is in hand. Whether the local drugs action teams decide to have regional co-ordinators is a decision for them. What we are doing is joining up government nationally, but not telling the teams what to do locally. We are recommending various methods that have been shown to work in some districts, and letting them choose.
Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham): Is not the effectiveness of drugs action teams' work in shire counties indirectly but inextricably bound up with the deterrent impact of successful police investigations? To that end, what assessment has the right hon. Lady made of the criteria for and the resources available to surveillance operations?
Marjorie Mowlam: Co-ordination in large shire counties is not always difficult. I visited two recently, and both were excellent examples. If the hon. Gentleman has identified specific problems in his own county, I am most willing to look into them. On his final point, we are co-ordinating across security, police and other groups whose task is to stop the drugs coming in. We are also co-ordinating on prevention, education and more education in schools to make sure that we attack drugs from every possible angle.
Drugs (Rural Areas)
7. Charlotte Atkins (Staffordshire, Moorlands): What progress is being made on combating the increase in illegal drug use, with particular reference to rural areas. [124269]
The Minister for the Cabinet Office (Marjorie Mowlam): The Government's 10-year strategy, "Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain", is designed to combat drug misuse in all parts of the United Kingdom, urban or rural.
Charlotte Atkins: Is my right hon. Friend aware of the anxiety in rural areas about the increase in drug abuse? Will she outline the measures that she is taking to ensure the expansion of treatment centres in rural areas?
Marjorie Mowlam: I am well aware of the anxiety in rural areas. Again, the problem is both urban and rural. Drugs are not confined to the urban or the rural communities. We are doing our best, through the central direct treatment agency, to ensure that the need in urban and rural areas is fulfilled. We have advertised for 300 additional counsellors, whom we shall train, initially to make it possible for treatment to increase.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |