§ Mr. NormanTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the planned expenditure on flood defence in(a) Kent and (b) Sussex for (i) 2000–01, (ii) 2001–02 and (iii) 2002–03, (A) overall and (B) broken down by coastal defence and other defences. [140718]
§ Mr. MorleyFlood defence works are mainly undertaken by the Environment Agency. The following table shows planned expenditure by the Agency (capital and maintenance) over this and the next two financial years in the areas of the Kent and Sussex Local Flood Defence Committees.
§ Mr. Ian McCartneyThe Government recognise that illicit drugs must be tackled on a global basis and support programmes in a number of countries. These include: provision of training; supply of equipment; sharing of best practice; and loan of personnel to help with anti-drug activities ranging from coca crop monitoring in Peru to anti-money laundering training in Turkey.
My right hon. Friend the Minister has visited Colombia this year to demonstrate UK support for the Colombian Government's counter-drugs efforts and to see how the international community can help in addressing the problems of illicit drug production and trafficking.
These and other anti-drug measures are now having an impact. For example:
During 1999–2000 Class A drugs worth £1.25 billion were prevented from reaching our streets;UK intelligence has played a key role in seizing Class A drugs worth hundreds of millions of pounds outside the UK during this year.Significant increased funding under the SR2000 settlement will help to fund initiatives seeking to reduce the availability of illegal drugs on our streets.
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§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will estimate the total value of the illegal drugs trade in the United Kingdom in each of the last 10 years. [140379]
§ Mr. Ian McCartneyThere are no reliable data as to the total value of the UK drugs trade over the past 10 years. The ONS 1998 estimation of the drugs market was between £4,334 and £9,927 million.
The National Economic Research Associates produced a draft figure for 1998 when assessing methodology and subsequently calculated the total value for the UK market for illicit drugs estimated in 1998 as £6,613.5 million.
§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will make a statement on the relationship between the street price and purity of(a) cocaine and (b) heroin over the last 10 years. [140370]
§ Mr. Ian McCartney(a) It appears that cocaine purity levels have gradually risen over the past 10 years and the price has dropped. In 1990 the average purity was 40 per cent. and this now stands at 60 per cent. The average price in 1993 was estimated to be £80 per gram and is now estimated at £65 per gram.
(b) Information available to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) suggests that the street level purity of heroin has risen over the last seven years, and that the price has dropped. Taking the South East as an example, in 1993, a gram bag of heroin cost about £ 100 in London and the South East, with a purity level of between 15 per cent. and 25 per cent. The latest figures available to NCIS (September 2000) show that a gram bag of heroin, with a purity level of between 30 per cent. and 35 per cent. costs between £60 and £70 in London and the South East.
§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will estimate the global production of(a) opium and (b) coca in each of the last 10 years. [140374]
§ Mr. Ian McCartney(a) The figures given in the following table for opium are based on UNDCP figures. Dividing each figure by 10 will give the amount of annual potential heroin production, although by no means all opium produced will be processed into heroin.
Year Opium (metric tons) 1990 3,760 1991 4,274 1992 4,143 1993 4,610 1994 5,620 1995 4,452 1996 4,355 1997 4,823 1998 4,348 1999 5,778 (b) The estimated global production figures for coca and cocaine are listed in the following table. The second column is for coca net cultivation in hectares, and the thrid column represents the cocaine produced in metric tons from the coca production figures.
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Year Coca (net) Cocaine (metric tons) 1990 30,040 837 1991 24,670 889 1992 20,260 916 1993 21,590 941 1994 20,160 877 1995 20,600 869 1996 19,030 843 1997 19,057 844 1998 19,080 824 1999 18,300 765
§ Dr. TongeTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the average age of heroin users was in each of the last 10 years. [140366]
§ Mr. Ian McCartneyInformation is available from the Regional Drug Misuse Databases for drug users presenting to treatment services in England for the first time (or for the first time for six months or more). This shows that the average age of those who reported heroin as their main drug of misuse has been 27 years for each six month period from 1 April—30 September 1996 to 1 April—30 September 1999. Between 1990 and 1996 the average age of addicts notified to the Home Office's Addicts Index for the first time fell by about 12 months to 25.9 years. During the same period the average age of addicts renotified remained fairly constant at between 30.1 and 30.8 years. Typically, female addicts were between 6 and 12 months younger than their male counterparts.