HC Deb 27 January 1993 vol 217 c712W
Mr. Rathbone

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if partnership arrangements between the probation service and community services will apply to all drug services(a) generally or (b) where a health service-managed drug misuse service is the only local specialist provision.

Mr. Jack

We envisage that each probation service will be responsible for developing plans with the voluntary and private sector to ensure that there is a wide and effective range of schemes in the area for dealing with offenders in the community, and funding them accordingly. Guidance on the implementation of these partnership arrangements is still be prepared in consultation with the relevant representative bodies. It is not the intention that statutory services should be funded by these arrangements. Voluntary and private sector schemes directed at the needs of drug misusing offenders will however be within their scope.

Mr. Rathbone

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how he plans to fund probation orders with conditions of residence for drug misusers from 1 April.

Mr. Jack

A probation order may include a requirement to receive treatment for drug or alcohol misuse only if the court is satisfied that arrangements have been made for such treatment to be given. A wide variety of possible treatments may be covered by such a requirement, with funding from different sources. Where treatment is to be provided under community care arrangements, which come into effect on 1 April 1993, the probation service will need to liaise with the appropriate local authority over the provision of resources to meet the offender's social care costs. Alcohol and drug misusers who are receiving treatment prior to 1 April and are eligible for income support will generally have preserved rights after 1 April to their existing level of benefit.

When an additional requirement of a probation order is that an offender should reside at an approved probation hostel, a weekly charge for the accommodation will be payable by the person concerned, for which benefits may be available in the usual way.