§ Mr. DobsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give the total of registered drug addicts for 1979 and each subsequent year and the estimated total of such addicts, respectively; and if he will give them also by the smallest geographical area by which they are broken down.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggInformation on the total number of addicts notified to the Home Office in the years 1979–86 is given in table 3.1 of the "Statistics of the Misuse of Drugs in the United Kingdom, 1986" (Home Office statistical bulletin 28/87). The same information is broken down by police force area and is given in tables A3.1, A3.2 and A3.3 of "Statistics of the Misuse of Drugs in the United Kingdom, 1986, Area Tables". Both publications are in the Library. It is hoped that figures for 1987 will be published in September.
Because of the nature of the activity, it is not possible to make any reliable estimate of the total number of unregistered drug addicts in the United Kingdom.