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Amendments made: No. 11, in page 2, line 5, leave out 'a school is' and insert 'the school premises are'.
No. 12, in page 2, line 9, leave out 'requests' and insert 'causes or permits'.
No. 13, in page 2, line 12, leave out 'drug related cash' and insert 'a drug related consideration'.
No. 14, in page 2, line 13, leave out
'drug related cash is cash'
'a drug related consideration is a consideration of any description'.
No. 15, in page 2, line 16, leave out 'to obtain' and insert 'in connection with obtaining'.
No. 16, in page 2, leave out lines 18 to 25.
No. 17, in page 2, line 25, at end insert—
'"school premises" means land used for the purposes of a school excluding any land occupied solely as a dwelling by a person employed at the school; and'.
No. 18, in page 2, leave out lines 33 to 35.— [Mr. Heppell.]
Amendments made:
No. 19, in page 20, line 8, after 'section', insert—
'made by the Secretary of State'.
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No. 20, in page 21, line 7, at end add—
'(2) In section 114(2) of that Act (procedure for subordinate legislation) after "1A" insert ", 1G".'.—[Mr. Heppell.]
7.41 pm
Caroline Flint: I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time.
I understand the concerns that have been raised today but, overall, there has been a constructive approach to the Bill both on Second Reading and in Committee. I hope that I have responded positively in the areas that we have covered to many of the points made by hon. Members. I accept the role of scrutiny and the fact that other parties have something to offer, but it seems that, on the Bill's return to the House, the fact that I have listened is not welcomed. That is an important part of the process. The Bill is not, as the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan) suggested, badly drafted, but sometimes things are left out of Bills or require clarification. We have certainly tried to deal with that. The Bill is not the only representation of the Government's efforts to tackle the problems of drug abuse in our communities.
Mr. Carmichael: That is a relief.
Caroline Flint: It is important that we look at what we can do to augment our achievements. It is acknowledged that we have devolved considerable amounts of Government funding to the local level through drug action teams and by pooling different moneys available for prevention and treatment into a single young people's partnership fund. We have enhanced powers for testing on arrest and for mandatory assessment of people who have tested positive for class A drugs. Those are significant efforts to break the vicious circle in which people commit offences to feed their drug habit. I am pleased that the drug intervention programme is beginning to bite, as an increased number of people are taking up treatment—a process that the Bill's provisions will only enrich. There are 54 per cent. more people in treatment than there were a few years ago, which demonstrates how importantly we take this issue. Even though people think it is important, drug treatment is not always a popular issue. It takes many forms—it is sometimes available in residential centres, but it must be supported within the community as well. We are committed to supporting and enhancing such initiatives. We are also building capacity, as we have not ceased in our ambition to grow the necessary treatment for people, whatever their age.
We are also keen to educate young people about the dangers of drug abuse so that they do not become problematic drug misusers. I am not complacent, but I am pleased to say that the use of class A drugs, which increased enormously in the 1990s, has stabilised since 1998 after years of increased use by young people. There is evidence to suggest that there has even been a drop in the use of cannabis by young people. We are reducing the supply of drugs in the UK, and Operation Crackdown, which we announced today, is showing impressive results. It is implementing the powers that the Government introduced effectively to shut down premises that are used to encourage drug dealing and
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other activities that are a blight on communities. We have had tremendous success in the past year, with 150 crack houses shut down. Today we announced further results provided by the police forces engaged in this important work.
Mrs. Gillan: I appreciate the fact that in her busy day the Minister had time to issue the press release first thing this morning, but she did not have time to properly inform the Opposition about matters pertaining to the Bill. I question the success of the operation, as reported in the press release. It states that in the past four weeks the police seized 17 kg of heroin. I understand from the statistics that back in 1999 the police seized 1,500 kg of heroin—that is, 160 kg in a month, so 17 kg is not that good. Likewise, the press release states that in the past month 413 people were charged with supplying class A drugs. Back in 1998, 7,230 people were charged—a rate of 605 a month. I am not sure that the statistics are as wonderful as the Minister trumpets them to be.
Caroline Flint: I shall have to look at the hon. Lady's reference sources. We are dealing here not with the whole picture, but with the specific campaign to focus on houses involved with drugs. That is where the police focus has been for the past four weeks. The results that we outlined today are due to that intervention. They do not account for all the other activities in which the police are involved, including the middle market drug units and the seizures taking place in other areas. The press release is designed to let people know about a particular campaign, which has been welcomed by police forces as a focus for their attention. It has also led to the seizure of firearms found at the same locations.
Lady Hermon: The Minister rightly pointed to the success of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003, which enables police forces in England and Wales to close down crack houses. May I draw to the hon. Lady's attention the fact that none of the 2003 Act extended to Northern Ireland? Will she give a commitment to look again at the needs of Northern Ireland in the absence of an Assembly? Given the activities of some bank robbers and those who are connected with them, it is highly unlikely that we will have our Assembly back in the near future. The issue is a serious one that must be dealt with by means of the legislation that goes through this House, so that commitment will be most welcome.
Caroline Flint: I will consider what the hon. Lady said and discuss with my hon. Friend the Minister for Crime Reduction, Policing and Community Safety and others the impact of the legislation on England and Wales and the effect of its not applying to Northern Ireland.
Mrs. Gillan:
I am grateful to the Minister for giving way again. The statistics that I obtained are taken partly from the information in the drug seizure and offender statistics, United Kingdom, 2001 and 2002, second edition. It is a Home Office statistical bulletin. May I ask the Minister where table 2.3 is in the statistical bulletin? That is the table that enables us to see what the police seize and what Customs seize, and it is missing from the Home Office's paper. I thought it was a mistake in my downloading, but the specific amount of drugs that were seized by each of those two operations is in table 2.3,
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which has been dropped from the paper. Will the Minister undertake to write to me, and will she provide us with the full details of how Operation Crackdown compares with the previous five years?
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst): Order. This is a Third Reading debate with a limited amount of time—[Interruption.] Order. With limited time and three long interventions such as those that we have had, we may not make progress as we should.
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