§ Mr. Fowlerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a statement regarding the report of the working party set up by his predecessor on habitual drunken offenders.
§ Mr. MaudlingThis report is being published as a Non-Parliamentary Paper today. It is a comprehensive and informative document, and I should like to express my thanks to the members of the Working Party for the care with which they have carried out their task. The Working Party was limited by its terms of reference to offenders coming within the penal system; but I think that its recommendations must be considered in the context of the whole problem of alcoholism, and I am in touch with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services about the recommendations.412W This is an important area, in which the Government are anxious to make progress; and my right hon. Friend and I shall now be arranging consultations with the various interested bodies concerned with the problems discussed in the Working Party Report.