§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the quantity of illegal drugs that have been seized either by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise or by the police that is currently being held in warehouses; what is the cost of this warehousing; and what is his policy regarding the period of time before the destruction of such drugs.
§ Mr. Hayhoe[pursuant to his reply, 11 May 1984, c. 464]: Except where the whole seizure is essential for evidential purposes the policy of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise is to destroy the bulk of drugs seized as soon as analysis and forensic tests are complete leaving only small samples for production as evidence. This may take merely a matter of days. For these reasons the amounts stored are subject to wide fluctuations.
The costs of warehousing are included in the general costs of Queen's warehouses which contain many other categories of goods.
I understand that the destruction policy for the Metropolitan police is broadly similar to that of Customs but police forces in other parts of the country where the problems are likely to be smaller may well follow different lines.