§ 3. Mr. Ben Chapman (Wirral, South)What his plans are for tackling drug misuse at a local level. [86782]
§ The Minister for the Cabinet Office (Dr. Jack Cunningham)Drug action teams are the mechanism for delivering the Government's anti-drug strategy locally. Each year, they agree local action plans with the UK anti-drugs co-ordinator.
§ Mr. ChapmanDoes my right hon. Friend agree that a great deal has been done locally to care for those with drug addiction including the supervised administration of methadone, the provision of clean needles to users and making drug units accessible and usable by addicts? Does he also agree that the most important target is to reduce the proportion of people taking drugs—in other words, to cure as well as care? Will he join me in welcoming projects on the Wirral which focus on preventing young people from using drugs and getting current users off them?
§ Dr. CunninghamYes, I applaud that important work because it is consistent with the Government's policy objectives, as set out in the White Paper and the first report from Mr. Keith Hellawell. I am happy to welcome the effective work being done by the Wirral drug action team and my hon. Friend's emphatic support for that work.
§ Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley)Does the Minister agree that schools provide the most appropriate local level at which to educate young people about the danger of taking drugs? Can he give the House a guarantee that sufficient investment is being provided to schools to ensure that teachers, who may not be experts in detecting drug use or educating youngsters about the dangers of drugs, are given the training necessary to enable them to tell youngsters about the dangers of so-called soft drugs and so-called designer drugs such as ecstasy, as well as heroin, crack cocaine and other substances which could endanger their lives?
§ Dr. CunninghamI am happy to agree with the hon. Gentleman. We need to ensure that schoolchildren are given good quality advice and information about the threat posed to them by all kinds of drugs. The hon. Gentleman is right to emphasise that. I announced last autumn an additional £217 million for this and related work, of which the Department for Education and Employment will get a share. There is already a high percentage of effective drug work going on in our schools, but we can improve on that. I know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment shares the hon. Gentleman's concern, which is understandably widespread. We will continue to improve on the present situation.
§ Mr. Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley)May I invite my right hon. Friend to Blyth Valley where we had a big 1155 problem with drugs? Over the past few years the community has got together with the health service, the local authority and the police and, after two or three years of hard graft, clearing the streets of drug dealers and setting up various escape organisations and parents against drugs groups, backed by European money, we have nearly cracked the problem. I invite my right hon. Friend to come along and have a look.
§ Dr. CunninghamI should be happy to try to find time to visit my hon. Friend and his constituents in Blyth. He is right to say that it is essential that, in addition to work on education, information, treatment and rehabilitation, there should be no let-up by the police in disrupting the work of the criminals who supply and traffic in drugs and present such a danger to all of us.
§ Mrs. Ann Winterton (Congleton)Will the Minister reaffirm his commitment, given to the House on several occasions, to the notion that parents have an essential role to play in the matter of children and drugs? Why have the Government backed the recommendation in a recent report by the standing conference on drug abuse that confidential treatment can be given to teenagers without the knowledge of their parents? Is it not totally irresponsible for agencies to usurp the responsibilities of parents; and is not there already enough deceit in drug abuse without adding more?
§ Dr. CunninghamI share the hon. Lady's concern. I do not object to her making that point, but the Government have not wholly endorsed the report to which she referred. I regard it as a substantial and important piece of work and we will naturally consider all its proposals and recommendations, but we certainly have not given them a blanket endorsement.
§ Mr. Vernon Coaker (Gedling)Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating the parents, the police and the education authorities in Nottinghamshire on setting up the ground-breaking DARE—drug awareness resistance education—project in schools, which involves police officers going into schools and working with teachers in order to alert young people to the dangers of drugs? Such is the programme's success that it has been extended, as a project respect programme, to secondary schools.
§ Dr. CunninghamYes, I welcome the work of DARE. We continue to get very positive reports about its operations. My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary visited the project before the general election. We are well aware of its excellent work and we support it.