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CABINET OFFICE
Drugs
6. Mr. Savidge: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what measures are being taken to assist other countries in reducing the production of illicit drugs. [139180]
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Mr. Ian McCartney: The Government recognise that illicit drugs must be tackled on a global basis and support programmes in a number of countries. These include: provision of training; supply of equipment; sharing of best practice; and loan of personnel to help with anti-drug activities ranging from coca crop monitoring in Peru to anti-money laundering training in Turkey.
My right hon. Friend the Minister has visited Colombia this year to demonstrate UK support for the Colombian Government's counter-drugs efforts and to see how the international community can help in addressing the problems of illicit drug production and trafficking.
These and other anti-drug measures are now having an impact. For example:
- During 1999-2000 Class A drugs worth £1.25 billion were prevented from reaching our streets;
- UK intelligence has played a key role in seizing Class A drugs worth hundreds of millions of pounds outside the UK during this year.
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Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will estimate the total value of the illegal drugs trade in the United Kingdom in each of the last 10 years. [140379]
Mr. Ian McCartney: There are no reliable data as to the total value of the UK drugs trade over the past 10 years. The ONS 1998 estimation of the drugs market was between £4,334 and £9,927 million.
The National Economic Research Associates produced a draft figure for 1998 when assessing methodology and subsequently calculated the total value for the UK market for illicit drugs estimated in 1998 as £6,613.5 million.
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will make a statement on the relationship between the street price and purity of (a) cocaine and (b) heroin over the last 10 years. [140370]
Mr. Ian McCartney: (a) It appears that cocaine purity levels have gradually risen over the past 10 years and the price has dropped. In 1990 the average purity was 40 per cent. and this now stands at 60 per cent. The average price in 1993 was estimated to be £80 per gram and is now estimated at £65 per gram.
(b) Information available to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) suggests that the street level purity of heroin has risen over the last seven years, and that the price has dropped. Taking the South East as an example, in 1993, a gram bag of heroin cost about £100 in London and the South East, with a purity level of between 15 per cent. and 25 per cent. The latest figures available to NCIS (September 2000) show that a gram bag of heroin, with a purity level of between 30 per cent. and 35 per cent. costs between £60 and £70 in London and the South East.
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will estimate the global production of (a) opium and (b) coca in each of the last 10 years. [140374]
Mr. Ian McCartney: (a) The figures given in the following table for opium are based on UNDCP figures. Dividing each figure by 10 will give the amount of annual potential heroin production, although by no means all opium produced will be processed into heroin.
| Year | Opium (metric tons) |
|---|---|
| 1990 | 3,760 |
| 1991 | 4,274 |
| 1992 | 4,143 |
| 1993 | 4,610 |
| 1994 | 5,620 |
| 1995 | 4,452 |
| 1996 | 4,355 |
| 1997 | 4,823 |
| 1998 | 4,348 |
| 1999 | 5,778 |
(b) The estimated global production figures for coca and cocaine are listed in the following table. The second column is for coca net cultivation in hectares, and the third column represents the cocaine produced in metric tons from the coca production figures.
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| Year | Coca (net) | Cocaine (metric tons) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 30,040 | 837 |
| 1991 | 24,670 | 889 |
| 1992 | 20,260 | 916 |
| 1993 | 21,590 | 941 |
| 1994 | 20,160 | 877 |
| 1995 | 20,600 | 869 |
| 1996 | 19,030 | 843 |
| 1997 | 19,057 | 844 |
| 1998 | 19,080 | 824 |
| 1999 | 18,300 | 765 |
Dr. Tonge: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the average age of heroin users was in each of the last 10 years. [140366]
Mr. Ian McCartney: Information is available from the Regional Drug Misuse Databases for drug users presenting to treatment services in England for the first time (or for the first time for six months or more). This shows that the average age of those who reported heroin as their main drug of misuse has been 27 years for each six month period from 1 April--30 September 1996 to 1 April--30 September 1999. Between 1990 and 1996 the average age of addicts notified to the Home Office's Addicts Index for the first time fell by about 12 months to 25.9 years. During the same period the average age of addicts renotified remained fairly constant at between 30.1 and 30.8 years. Typically, female addicts were between 6 and 12 months younger than their male counterparts.
Drugs (Gloucestershire)
7. Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many drug misusers there are in Gloucestershire. [139181]
Mr. Ian McCartney: Figures provided by the Gloucestershire Drug Action Team indicate that some 1,224 drug misusers accessed one or other form of treatment service within Gloucestershire during 1999-2000.
Some £2.3 million has been made available to fund treatment services within the DAT area this year. This will rise to over £2.4 million next year. To improve the efficient delivery of these vital services representatives from the statutory and non-statutory sector met recently to agree priorities for ensuring the more effective delivery of treatment in the region.
Rural Affairs
8. Mr. David Heath: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what work has been done by the Cabinet Committee on Rural Affairs to address constraints on the growth of the economy of rural areas. [139182]
13. Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will make a statement on the work of the ministerial committee on rural affairs. [139189]
Mr. Stringer: The Terms of Reference of the Ministerial Group on Rural Affairs are
- to co-ordinate the Government's policies affecting rural areas.
The Rural White Paper, published yesterday, is a statement of the Government's rural policy.
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Drug Education
9. Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many (a) primary and (b) secondary schools have anti-drug education policies. [139183]
Mr. Ian McCartney: A survey conducted by the Office for Standards in Education of some 30 local education authorities indicates that 75 per cent. of primary and 93 per cent. of secondary schools have policies on drug education. This compares with 61 per cent. of primary and 86 per cent. of secondary schools in 1997.
While this is a significant improvement we are working to encourage all schools to have such policies. We aim to ensure that a 100 per cent. of secondary schools have policies in place within two years.
Government Services Online
10. Mr. White: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what progress has been made on achieving Government targets for electronic access to Government services. [139184]
Mr. Ian McCartney: The Government continue to make strong progress towards the target that by 2005 all services should be available online.
A leading example of the progress that we are making towards this goal is the development of the UK online Citizen Portal which is due to go live early next month. This site will offer a new way to access all UK Government information and services available online. For example, a "Life Events" area of the portal takes situations important to lots of people, like having a baby or moving house, and pulls together packages of information and services in one convenient place.
We shall be asking the public to tell us how they would like to see the portal evolve so that it is focused around the way citizens want to do business online with Government including call centres supported by computer databases and face to face meetings where appropriate.
Central Government have already put online one third of the 451 services we have identified to the citizen and to business; 70 per cent. are expected to be online by 2002.
20. Dr. Cable: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will make a statement on progress made in meeting the targets for providing Government services online. [139199]
22. Mr. Healey: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will make a statement on progress in meeting the Government's targets for the provision of e-access to public information and services. [139202]
Mr. Ian McCartney: The Government continue to make strong progress towards the Prime Minister's target that by 2005 all Government services should be available online.
We have a good story to tell, for central Government have identified 451 services to the citizen and to business and already one third of them are available online.
Things you can do online now include:
- ordering and paying for a company's financial returns;
- checking to see if you need hospital treatment;
- finding out if it is safe to visit foreign countries; and
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Employees and employers can interactively calculate pay rates and entitlements under the national minimum wage regulations with further interactive guides to employment law to follow.
People can get a local weather forecast to help plan their day using their mobile phone (SMS or WAP).
Much more detail about Government service than I can give here may be found in the reports monitoring progress towards the targets for electronic service. These include details of the innovative approaches that Departments have planned for future services.
The spring 2000 report has been placed in the Libraries of the House. My Department is preparing the autumn 2000 monitoring report which I will also be placing in the Libraries of the House.
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