§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list by Department the total amount allocated to tackling problems relating to drugs in each of the last 10 years. [27452]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthI have been asked to reply.
Information on resources is not available in the form requested.
The Government have made available substantial resources for directly tackling the problem of drug misuse. A breakdown of funding allocated for the years 1995 to 2004 is as follows.
The first United Kingdom drugs strategy, "Tackling Drugs Together", was launched in May 1995 and allocated £8.8 million over three years to Drug Action Teams, £5.9 million on schools drug education for 1995–96, and £1 million in the same year for services to young people at an early stage of drug misuse.
For the present strategy "Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain", the 1998 Comprehensive Spending Review settlement provided an additional £217 million of resources for three years. The Spending Review 2000 (SR 2000) and the Budget 2001 provided further resources bringing total expenditure under the drugs strategy to nearly £1 billion by 2003–04—see Table A.
Furthermore, SR 2000 also supported a range of related programmes—see Table B—and following the Budget 2001, some additional investment was made, particularly to help Communities tackle drug misuse—see Table C.
Table A: 2000 Spending Review—resources directly allocated for tackling drug abuses (by main aim of the national anti-drugs strategy)1 2000–012 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 Drug treatment3 234 328 377 401 Protecting young people 63 90 97 120 Safeguarding communities 45 79 81 95 Reducing availability4 353 373 376 380 Total 695 870 931 996 1 Excludes devolved spending 2 Estimates of baseline spend in Departmental Expenditure Limits 3 Comprises mainstream spending by the Department of Health, local authorities and the pooled National Treatment Agency (NTA) budget. Excludes additional Prison Service treatment spend, brigaded under Communities 4 UK spend for 2001–02 to 2003–04 includes the anti-drugs share of the £90 million approved for combating organised crime 512W
Table B: 2000 Spending Review—new resources provided for related programmes1 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 Criminal Justice System 1,420 2,290 2,720 Neighbourhood Renewal Fund 200 300 400 Children's Fund 100 150 200 Connexions2 77 177 3— 1 Excludes devolved spending 2 This was added to existing provision for the careers service. Funding will continue to go to the careers service in areas where Connexions is not yet running 3 Provision for 2003–04 will be announced in due course
Table C: Budget 2001—new resources for anti-drugs measures1 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 Strengthening communities 50 70 100 Extending drug testing in the CJS 0 20 30 Providing more help to find jobs 5 15 20 Strengthening DATs 5 5 5 Expanding Positive Futures 2 3 2— 1 Excludes devolved spending 2 Provision to be decided in the light of other sources of funding