§ Mr. KnapmanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department is taking to strengthen international co-operation against drugs.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggWe are pursuing a wide range of initiatives to strengthen international co-operation. We are working to enable the United Kingdom to ratify the new United Nations Convention against the illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. We are negotiating bilateral agreements on the confiscation of drug traffickers' assets. Five such agreements have now been concluded and more are in the pipeline. We are holding a ministerial conference of the Council of Europe's drug co-operation group (the Pompidou Group), under my right hon. Friend's chairmanship, in London on 18–19 May, to discuss the threat posed by cocaine and "crack", confiscation of proceeds derived from illicit trafficking and the problems of AIDS and drug misuse.