Drug-related Crime (Hansard, 10 March 1994)

§ 15. Mr. Milburn
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what initiatives his Department is taking to tackle drug-related crime.

§ Mr. Maclean
I refer the hon. Member to the oral answer given earlier today to the hon. Members for Pendle (Mr. Prentice) and for Wallsend (Mr. Byers).

§ Mr. Milburn
How can the Government possibly justify cutting funding for drugs education when, currently, just four in 10 school children have access to that vital advice? Why does not the Minister realise that being tough on law and order means taking action to prevent crime as well as imposing stiffer sentences?

§ Mr. Maclean
In the replies to questions Nos. 1 and 4 I laid out the elements of the Government's prevention strategy, a great deal of which is concerned with crime prevention. Last week, the hon. Gentleman's hon. Friend the Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair) made a speech entitled "Drugs: the need for action"ߞ four pages of waffle against the Government, with three miserable paragraphs at the end. How much money will the hon. Gentleman spend? The last of the big spenders would provide £4 million to deal with the drugs problem. We spend £4 million every three days. But the hon. Gentleman will not be allowed even to keep his £4 million promise, as his hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline, East (Mr. Brown) will say that he did not make the promise of the Floor of the House.

§ Sir Peter Fry
Does my hon. Friend agree that the estimated level of drug-related crime is now so high that it makes nonsense of the complaint from Labour Members that crime is a result of unemployment or social deprivation? Does he agree that drugs constitute the main factor driving the crime figures up?

§ Mr. Maclean
Of course there is drug-related crime. No one seeks to deny or exaggerate that. The important point is that we have the strategy for dealing with it at all levels through the drugs prevention initiative; massive spending on the safer cities programme; the toughest penalties in Europe; tough action by the police and customs; drugs education in the national curriculum; and all the other action that the Government are taking. Those add up to more than £500 million a year worth of action on all aspects of the fight against drugs.