§ Mr. John MacKayasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what progress he has made in undertaking the further consultations promised by him in his written answer on 19 May, Official Report, columns 46–48, on dealing with the problem of solvent abuse.
§ Mr. YoungerA consultative document is being issued today to all those bodies having an interest in this subject. Copies have been sent to all Scottish Members. This arises from the proposal in the consultative memorandum on the powers and procedures of children's hearings, issued in April 1980, that solvent abuse might be made an additional ground for referral to the reporter to a children's panel; but it also deals with the suggestion that the inhalation of solvents, or their supply for this purpose, might be made a criminal offence.
To create an offence of deliberately inhaling solvents or of supplying them for the purpose could have undesirable results; the first of these might, it is suggested, cause young people to go to greater lengths to avoid detection, while to establish an offence of supplying would be difficult where the products concerned could all be bought for quite legitimate purposes. At the same time, the Government are grateful to suppliers who have voluntarily taken steps to restrict sales to children.
The replies to the memorandum in 1980 showed a large majority in favour of making solvent abuse a ground for referral, but a number of respondents who gave detailed comments on the question raised a very wide variety of points, from which it was apparent that the problem called for further study. In my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Moray and Nairn (Mr. Pollock), on 19 May 1981.—[Vol. 5, c. 46–8.]—I therefore said that I would be considering further how extended grounds for referral might be formulated; and as part of that consideration I have taken account of other approaches to the problem which have been suggested.
These suggestions are discussed in the consultative document. There have proved to be considerable problems in making solvent abuse as such a ground for referral, and it is by no means certain that this step would have the desired effect; while a wider ground of "self-inflicted injury" could also cause considerable difficulties. A third option, to which particular attention is drawn, is the possibility of using existing statutory powers to bring children who abuse solvents to the attention of the reporter.
The consultative document also looks at the possibility of making use of and improving existing administrative 146W practices, with particular emphasis on the education and training of those concerned in the children's hearings system; the development of co-operation between reporters to children's panels, hearings, the police and the medical, social work and teaching professions; and the counselling of identified children and their parents.
I must stress that the consultative document does not, and cannot, propose any kind of omnibus answer to this very complex problem. Indeed, such an answer may not exist. But I hope that by exploring certain particular aspects of solvent abuse, setting out the difficulties inherent in various popularly supported approaches, and seeking the considered views of expert and concerned persons and bodies, it will help us to arrive at the most effective means of dealing with this practice, the dangers of which the Government recognise as a cause of great public concern.