HL Deb 28 June 1984 vol 453 cc1140-1WA
Baroness Sharpies

asked Her Majesty's Government:

When they expect to publish the report of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs on prevention.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Elton)

My right honourable friend is publishing this report today. Copies are available in the Library of the House and are being sent to a wide range of statutory and voluntary bodies, inviting them to comment on its conclusions and recommendations.

The Government welcome this report and are grateful to the council for its careful study of a difficult and growing problem which is a matter of increasing public concern. The Government fully share this concern, and the report's recommendations—which are concerned primarily with ways of preventing drug misuse through the provision of information and education—represent a most valuable contribution to their strategy for tackling drug misuse. This strategy is based on measures to stem the flow of illicit drugs into this country in co-operation with producer and transit countries, to provide for effective enforcement of and adequate deterrents in the law, and to make available help and guidance to those who are misusing or are tempted to misuse drugs.

The Government are therefore taking immediate steps to implement the council's major recommendations. We accept in particular its basic conclusion that there is a need for more effective broadly-based programmes which will have the positive aim of promoting healthier lifestyles and will include information about drugs and their effect. Education of the young must be a priority; but help and guidance must also be made more readily available to those who may be able to influence the young, whether parents, teachers, youth workers or other professionals.

The Government's strategy—of which follow-up action on this report forms an essential part—covers a wide range of departmental interests. The Home Secretary has therefore decided, following consultations with my right honourable friends, to set up an inter-departmental group of Ministers and officials under the chairmanship of my honourable. friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State. The task of this group will be to develop the Government's overall strategy for combating drug misuse and to oversee its implementation, having particular regard to the priorities for the allocation and deployment of resources and the co-ordination of the work of the various central and local agencies, both statutory and voluntary. As a matter of urgency, the group will put in hand the work needed to carry forward the recommendations contained in the Advisory Council's report on prevention, taking into account comments on the report as they become available.