§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will inform drug action teams of their financial allocations for 2002–03. [30034]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthI will write shortly to the Member for Epsom and Ewell and place a copy of the reply in the Library.
Drug Action Teams (DATs) receive funding from a variety of sources. The Spending Review 2000 (SR2000) settlement provided a total of £185 million for the year 2002–03 for the delivery of the National Drugs Strategy. In addition, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a total of £235 million—£220 million (£50 million/£70 million/£100 million) to Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships and £15 million (£5 million/£5 million/£5 million) direct to Drug Action Teams for the Communities Against Drugs Initiative (a three year programme running from 2001–04 to help local communities disrupt local drug markets and tackle drug related crime and the antisocial behaviour so often associated with it. Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships have to agree with Drug Action Teams how best to spend their allocation.
The detail of the SR2000 for 2002–03 allocations were published as follows:
£ million Young people 29 Communities 29 Treatment 120 The allocations for Communities Against Drugs to Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships will be announced shortly. We have communicated to Drug Action Teams the Home Office share of the treatment allocations which are due to them. Other treatment allocations are a matter for the Secretary of State for Health and the National Treatment Agency. We understand an announcement for the pooled treatment allocations will be made shortly.
On 7 November, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills announced a further £25 million funding for three years (£7 million/£8 million/£10 million) from 2001–04. This was in addition to £7.5 million baseline for each of these years.
In respect of other financial allocations to Drug Action Teams wrote to Drug Action Teams Chairs on 21 January setting out the terms of the DAT Development funding for 2002–03. Drug Action Team Co-ordinators were advised of their allocations of the £5 million for 2002–03 under the Communities Against Drugs Initiative on 24 January.