§ 1. Mr. David Chaytor (Bury, North)What estimate she has made of the economic costs of addiction to hard drugs in respect of (a) the national health service and (b) police forces in England and Wales. [124262]
§ The Minister for the Cabinet Office (Marjorie Mowlam)Drug misuse costs Britain more than £4 billion each year in crime, sickness and absenteeism. The Government are fully committed to tackling this problem. That is why we pledged an additional £217 million as part of the 1998 comprehensive spending review for anti-drugs activities. We are currently finalising the spending for the next three years and will announce details of future funding in support of the Government's drugs strategy very shortly.
§ Mr. ChaytorI thank my right hon. Friend for that reply. First, in view of those remarkable figures, does she agree that the importance of treatment for addiction is becoming even more important? What steps are being taken to improve facilities for treatment?
Secondly, does my right hon. Friend agree that the control of drugs is not something which can be dealt with purely within national borders? What steps are being taken internationally to stop the flow of drugs? Are there any lessons that we can learn from other countries' drugs policies?
§ Marjorie MowlamOn the first part of my hon. Friend's question, more than £70 million of the sum that I mentioned was allocated to health and local authorities to fund new treatment services. We fundamentally believe that treatment works; we have the research and the figures to show it. A further £133 million was allocated to the criminal justice system to help to break the links between 924 drug misuse and crime. We have also advertised for an extra 300 counsellors, and we hope shortly to start training them. Treatment is one of our areas of focus.
The second part of my hon. Friend's question was about the international front. He is right to suggest that drugs do not recognise national boundaries. We are working effectively across the services within the United Kingdom to stop drugs entering the country, and we are working in co-operation with Europe and OECD countries to maximise the effectiveness of international groups. Last night, I returned from Colombia, from which 80 per cent. of the cocaine consumed in this country comes. I went there to see what we could do to work with the Colombians to help to decrease the flow of drugs.
§ Mr. Ian Bruce (South Dorset)Will the Minister tell us whether the strategy is yet scoring any successes in reducing the amount of drug use? As police resources become ever more stretched, police forces often do not pursue drug offences. They follow up other offences that are more likely to be reported to them. Drug offences tend not to be reported to the police, so they have to take a proactive approach to such offences.
§ Marjorie MowlamThere are signs that we are making progress slowly. We have a 10-year strategy because, as we have frequently said, we shall not be able to deal with the problem overnight. Referrals in the prison system for offences and some of the figures—the figures in different reports often contradict each other—show that, overall, the trend is that we are making progress in dealing with the problems of young people and reoffending in prisons. Police forces are doing a good job in focusing on the killer drugs—heroin and cocaine—so I assure the hon. Gentleman that all the evidence that I have suggests that we are making progress. However, we have a 10-year strategy because dealing with the problem will take time.