HC Deb 01 May 1984 vol 59 cc119-20W
Mr. Alfred Morris

asked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will publish in the Official Report the letter of 13 April from the Minister of State for the Armed Forces to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe, following the answer of 12 April, Official Report, column 357.

Mr. Lee

The text of the letter is as follows:

I promised on 11th April to write to you in response to your Questions about the incidence of drug abuse in the Armed Forces. You asked for information on three specific points and I shall deal with each in turn.

First, you asked how many cases of alleged possession and supply of drugs have been investigated in the armed forces in the past three years. I should stress that most cases involving drug offences in the Services do not in fact involve trafficking in, or possession of, drugs but relate to experimentation, mostly with soft rather than hard drugs. However the central records maintained by the Services do not distinguish between the nature of the offences concerned and the following figures therefore cover all drug-related offences investigated in the Services:

1981 1982 1983
Royal Navy 58 27 67
Army 169 143 168
Royal Air Force 38 29 28

The RN and RAF figures are for those investigations which resulted in proceedings being taken; the Army figures show the total number of cases investigated, including those which did not result in proceedings.

You also asked about the number of cases currently under investigation and the number of Service personnel involved. As you will appreciate until an investigation is completed it is not possible to say how many people may be implicated and I am therefore unable to give you figures. I can however confirm that a number of investigations are currently in hand.

Finally you asked about alleged deaths resulting from the possession and supply of drugs. We know of no cases of death arising from such activities in the Services in recent years. You will appreciate that I cannot comment on any current case where the coroner's verdict has still to be given.

I should also like to make the general point that whilst the Services as a whole have a good record with regard to drug-related problems, this danger is taken very seriously and a great deal of time and effort is spent in trying to prevent cases of drug abuse and in detecting them as soon as they do arise.

John Stanley"