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The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. David Blunkett): I beg to move, To leave out from "House" to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof:

"welcomes the record falls in crime achieved by this Government since 1997, recognising that the chances of becoming a victim of crime are now at their lowest level since records began and that gun crime fatalities are falling; recognises that these achievements are the result of record numbers of police officers on the streets, reinforced for the first time by Community Support Officers; welcomes the Government's achievements in reducing anti-social behaviour which has blighted the lives of too many of the most vulnerable people; and supports the Government's continuing programme of action to tackle crime, including the recruitment of 25,000 Community Support Officers and wardens, the provision of extra prison capacity and tougher penalties for those who break the law."

I am disappointed. I came here this afternoon expecting a real battle. I expected to be savaged with real facts and figures, unknown to us, that would once again reveal a truly incisive Tory party policy that gives us real answers for the future. Instead, I have heard made-up statistics, such as 1 million people being on class A drugs. One in 50 people in this country—one in 40 adults—are not on class A drugs.

The actual number of problematic regular class A drug users is 280,000. That is why we have a policy to double the number of people in treatment over the next two and a half years, and why the number of people in treatment increased by 125 per cent. between April and September this year. The money is now flowing through and the treatment places are being created. The drugs intervention programme in the most affected areas, including Nottingham, is putting targeted money—millions of pounds—into localities throughout the country. In Nottingham's case, it has been doing so since last April. That programme, linked with additional policing, with the intelligence model of policing and of course with the development of the Serious Organised Crime Agency and proper interventions by the existing National Crime Squad and National Criminal Intelligence Service, is essential.

We do not dispute what the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (David Davis) said about the growing problem of gun crime linked to organised criminality linked to the drugs industry. That is self-evident, which is why we have and are continuing to put so much resource into drugs, why we have decided to pull together and expand the agencies that deal with serious organised crime, and why the Labour Government set up the NCIS, developed the NCS and began to get a grip on an international problem. As I was discussing with Interior Ministers in Italy this morning, in the case of crack, we have to deal with trafficking from south America. We have to work together with the other countries that are desperately affected to break that trade. In the case of the heroin that
 
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reaches our streets, we have to deal with Afghanistan and the trade through Turkey. There is no dispute about that. How to tackle the problem, however, is the $2 billion question. Bombing the poppy fields of Afghanistan is not the answer, as it would allow the Taliban to recruit people in those marginalised areas and offer individuals whose livelihood had been destroyed an alternative living. A more sophisticated approach is needed. When the new Afghan Government are in place, it will be possible to do the things that President Karzai, whom I have met three times in the past year alone to discuss this issue, has been attempting to achieve against the odds. His Administration have been fighting a battle against terrorists on the fringes of Afghanistan, stabilising the country as a whole, preparing for an election that people said would never happen, taking part in that election, establishing a new Government and working with us.

We must, however, tackle supply routes in neighbouring countries and through Turkey. The Foreign Secretary and I will, of course, ensure, that any transition by Turkey into the European Union, and even the first stage of reconsideration of its application in 2007, is based on its willingness to work with us. Along with France and other countries, we have put resources into the Balkans, where there are crucial supply routes. This is not about picking up heroin only at our ports; it is about stopping it crossing the continent and reaching Britain.

Mr. Wiggin : If the Home Secretary is doing such a marvellous job, why is the price falling?

Mr. Blunkett: I did not say that I was doing a marvellous job, but I am glad to receive the accolade. Organisations in the UK and across Europe are working with us to revamp and improve Europol—another issue that I discussed with Interior Ministers in the past 24 hours—which is crucial if we are to tackle the problem, but the price of the world supply, not just the supply to the UK, fluctuates. [Interruption.] Well, we can make a graph from the statistics, perhaps not this afternoon, but I am happy to send the hon. Member for Leominster (Mr. Wiggin) a copy later. Seizures of both heroin and crack cocaine have increased, with tonnages going up dramatically. However, it is a fact that the price has continued to drop. About three years ago, two dozen people in Glasgow died within a short period because there was a temporary cut in the heroin supply and prices rose. A contaminated supply led to those tragic deaths.

We therefore need a more intelligent approach to the problem. We must block the supply routes and change the nature of the crop, so that the producers can survive. We must work with our partners in Europe, if I may use a term that the Opposition never like to hear, because we can break supply lines and undermine organised gangs only if we operate together. Project Reflex, which will be incorporated in the Serious Organised Crime Agency, has done a good job in further disrupting the supply. We can, of course, continue to do so only by improving surveillance at our borders. Outside wartime, we have
 
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never had tighter border controls. No one ever envisaged that we would move our border controls to France.

Mr. Wiggin: We have only done so in theory.

Mr. Blunkett: No, it is not theory at all. Our border controls have moved to France, and clandestine entry has been reduced by 65 per cent. When Customs and Excise is divided and Customs becomes part of the new agency, that will allow us to co-ordinate surveillance at French ports. I shall shortly announce further measures at additional French ports. The Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint), has signed an agreement with the Belgian Minister of the Interior to improve and co-ordinate our response with that country, and it is obviously important to do so across northern Europe. That is the backdrop to the problem. This afternoon, however, we have heard nothing but doom and gloom from the Opposition. I do not dispute any of their statistics, except the figure of 1 million drug users; but instead of making positive proposals to tackle the problem, we heard a litany of problems in Nottingham, and how what is going wrong there is indicative of a total collapse.

Mr. David Drew (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op): Does my right hon. Friend accept that, just as we should be going after drug dealers, there is a problem with those who deal in guns? Although the vast majority of people in this country who deal in firearms do so legitimately, there does seem to be a problem. When we look at how people trade internationally, we can see that weapons can even be exported legitimately and then re-imported as different types of firearm, which then get on to the streets. I was surprised that the Opposition did not pick that up. Would my right hon. Friend care to talk about that issue, because it is a key problem?

Mr. Blunkett: The issue is complicated because quite a lot of the guns that come into our country are not formally imported. Many of them are adapted from weapons that are already here. Some are part of the historic export trade of this country, which goes back a very long way. Perhaps the Liberal Democrats cannot remember far enough back to a time when they were responsible for any of this, although my city was built on exporting weaponry in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Liberal Democrats had a smell of office. We and the official Opposition need to examine our consciences and think about who we have exported to over the years and how we get the exports back in all sorts of different ways.

I take the point, and it is important that we are on the ball when tracking what is happening, which is why the intelligence-based approach is so crucial and why the National Criminal Intelligence Service and its successor are vital to stop what is going on.

Mr. McCabe: I agree with my right hon. Friend that we need to track guns, try to control them and take them out of circulation. The point that the shadow Home Secretary made earlier interested me. He seemed to
 
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think that the key element was compensation. Apart from the fact that those are resources that could be used in the war on crime, is it not the case that in South Africa when compensation was paid it led to the importation of more guns so that compensation could be claimed?

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