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Baroness Andrews: My Lords, to deal first with parents, as a result of yesterday's Statement, we have a new communications strategy that will have at its focus informing and supporting parents and helping them to enable their children. That will be a three-year strategy. In addition, the Department for Education and Skills is consolidating educational guidance, so that it all sends the same message. I am sure that the noble Baroness knows that the alcohol strategy is at present the subject of consultation. When that is completed, by the middle of next year, we will know better how to use resources. Many children who abuse drugs are also alcohol abusers.
Baroness Massey of Darwen: My Lords, I must declare an interest as chair of the National Treatment Agency for substance misuse. My organisation and I appreciate the Government's concern for young people, but does my noble friend agree that many different drugs are involved, that each case must be treated individually and that residential care is not the only solution for treating drug use? Does she further agree that local co-ordination of treatment is key? How is that occurring and being improved?
Baroness Andrews: My Lords, I pay tribute to the work of the National Treatment Agency, which has been in existence for only 18 months but is making a
terrific impact, and to my noble friend's work as chair of the NTA. Part of its major task is to improve co-ordination on the ground. We must face the fact that until about two years ago there was virtually no such co-ordination. Drug action teams had extremely variable standards of provision and action. The NTA has been able to bring guidance to bear on the DATs, so that there is now a much more even and optimistic prospect. Co-ordination is an issue across the whole field. Locally, we need more integration of children's services. Nationally, we need departments to work together, as they now plan to do as a result of the drug strategy.My noble friend is right to say that residential care is not always the answer. Especially when focusing on vulnerable young children, many of whom have been in care, we need individual solutions.
Lord Taverne: My Lords, I welcome the general drift of government policy on the treatment of addicts. I also appreciate the difficulty of providing residential places for under-17s. Addicts under 17 are more expensive to treat than those over 17 because of the need to provide educational facilities.
I agree with the Minister that residential treatment is not the only effective treatment, but there are occasions on which residential treatment is important. There is a great shortage of places. Does not the situation call for a special capital grant to deal with such special cases?
Baroness Andrews: My Lords, one of the reasons for separating children and adults is that long-term, chronic addicts have different needs and different treatment modalities. We must make sure that we do not confuse treatment for children with the sort of things that we put in place for adults.
There is an additional £40 million for treatment for next year. By the end of the third year, there will be £98 million. It may well be that some of that money will be spent on capital building and residential treatment.
Baroness Masham of Ilton: My Lords, does the Minister agree that young offender institutions are residential institutions? Therefore, many young people are in residential care. The local authorities do not want to pick up the bill; they pass it on to the Home Office.
Baroness Andrews: My Lords, we must bear in mind that the pooled budget that covers drug treatment, is, of course, ring-fenced and should be used only for that purpose. I would like to see an extension of inreach and outreach work in young offender institutions, so that those young people connect with the community when they come out. They must have appropriate treatment to bring them off drugs when they are in prison.
Earl Howe: My Lords, is the Minister aware that certain drug users are, in general, under-represented in drug treatment centres—for example, crack cocaine
users, women and addicts from ethnic minorities? That point came out in yesterday's White Paper. What kind of strategies do the Government have in mind for targeting support on the groups that most need it?
Baroness Andrews: My Lords, clearly, crack is a problem. It is the one element of drug use that is increasing among young people. More young people are using it. In January, there was the first of a series of meetings on the development of a new strategy for crack and cocaine. That will be followed by new guidance. We are having a close look at what can be done urgently.
We have a problem with training professionals to work with black and ethnic minority users, who have specific needs. I am pleased to say that one of the things that the National Treatment Agency has done in the past few months is put forward a programme for training black and ethnic minority drugs workers. That will come into effect in April, and 50 people have already been recruited.
Lord Grocott: My Lords, we are well into the seventeenth minute.
Turkey
2.53 p.m.
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What was the outcome of their discussions with Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey.
The Minister for Trade (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean): My Lords, on 20th November, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary and Mr Erdogan discussed AKP's plans for government and commitment to reform, particularly in the area of human rights. The Prime Minister underlined the United Kingdom's strong support for Turkey's EU candidature. He stressed that there was now a unique opportunity, ahead of the Copenhagen summit, to make progress over European defence issues and to resolve the problem of Cyprus on the basis of the United Nations Secretary-General's recent comprehensive proposals.
Lord Avebury: My Lords, considering that the European Commission has just found that Turkey does not fully meet the political criteria for membership and that many of the reforms have significant limitations, does not the noble Baroness agree that it would be inappropriate for the Copenhagen summit to set a date for the start of accession negotiations? Will the Government do their best at the Copenhagen summit and elsewhere to press Turkey to have a proper internationally approved plan for the return of several hundred thousand villagers
who were displaced from their homes in the south-east? They are still waiting to return, despite the fact that the European Court has ruled in their favour, and no compensation has yet been paid to them by the Turkish Government.
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, the Turkish Government are moving towards the Copenhagen criteria, and I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, will be pleased to know that yesterday the Turkish Cabinet passed a further package of reforms, which has been sent to the Turkish Parliament. The reforms are designed to address the shortcomings highlighted in the Commission's report, to which the noble Lord referred. They deal with issues such as human rights, torture and ill treatment, incommunicado detention and rights of access to lawyers and many others.
The reforms will, we hope, be passed before the Copenhagen summit, which is next week. I understood from a conversation that I had with Her Majesty's Ambassador in Ankara only this morning that a further reform package was expected to be on the way.
Lord Howell of Guildford: My Lords, in contrast to the view of the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, and the view of the ex-president of France, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, should we not strongly welcome the fact that Turkey has, for the first time in many years, a strong majority government? Should we not recognise that, far from being a burden on the European Union, Turkey can, in the longer term and at the appropriate time, be a major security and economic bulwark for the European Union? Should not Her Majesty's Government take every possible step to encourage the offering of a firm date, in due course, to Turkey at the Copenhagen summit?
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, I hope that the noble Lord will be delighted—and not too embarrassed—to know that his views are entirely consonant with those of my right honourable friend the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister said:
- "I hope that it will be possible to make a commitment to that country"—
- "at the European Council in Copenhagen. I hope that we will set a firm date for negotiations, that they will form part of a package to lay to rest some of the outstanding difficulties on European defence and that we shall at least find a proper way forward on Cyprus".—[Official Report, Commons, 25/11/02; col. 44.]
Lord Elton: My Lords, as one whose thumbs are firmly horizontal at the moment, I ask the Minister whether what is going on in Turkish-occupied Cyprus is a matter of relevance and concern. What views are
the Government expressing to the Turkish Government on how that should improve before their admission to the Community?
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