HC Deb 31 January 1994 vol 236 cc569-70W
Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what is the estimated annual cost of drug-related crime;

(2) what have been the changes in (a) the number of drug-related crimes and (b) the percentage of all crime that is drug related since 1979;

(3) what is his estimate of the percentage of crime committed annually that is drug related.

Mr. Maclean

The involvement of drug misusers in criminal activity is difficult to quantify. It is not possible to estimate with any accuracy the amount of crime which is drug related or the cost of such crime.

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what have been the changes in(a) the number of drug-related crimes involving firearms and (b) the percentage of all crimes involving firearms that are drug related.

Mr. Maclean

The information requested is not available centrally.

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in the United Kingdom have a criminal record for possession of cannabis; and how many police officers in the United Kingdom are solely engaged in combating drug-related crime.

Mr. Maclean

Information on the total number of persons who have a criminal record for possession of cannabis is not collected centrally. The number of persons who have been found guilty, cautioned or compounded for possession of cannabis in each year from 1982 to 1992 is given in table 3.3 of the Home Office Statistical Bulletin "Statistics of drugs seizures and offenders dealt with, United Kingdom, 1992"—issue 30/93—a copy of which is in the Library.

By the end of 1992 over 1,400 police officers were wholly engaged in the investigation of drug-related crime in England and Wales; in Scotland more than 120 police officers were specifically engaged in drugs work; and in Northern Ireland some 34 officers were so occupied.

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the total number and proportion of the prison population serving sentences for convictions on drug-related offences.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Paul Flynn, dated 31 January 1994:

DRUG RELATED OFFENCES

The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question asking what is the total number and proportion of the prison population serving sentences for convictions on drug-related offences.

Figures for the population in Prison Service establishments by offence group are published annually in "Prison Statistics, England and Wales", Table 1.8 of the volume for 1991 (Cm 2157). Provisional information for 30 September 1993 shows that 3,244 prisoners were recorded centrally as being sentenced for drug offences, just over 10 per cent. of the total sentenced population for whom an offence was recorded.

Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the number and proportion of prisoners convicted for drug-related offences who reoffend.

Mr. Maclean

The available information on the reoffending of prisoners is the rate of reconviction within two and four years after discharge from prison.

The latest statistics are for those discharged from prison service establishments in 1987 after completion of a prison sentence for which the principal offence was a drugs offence. Within two years of discharge, 1,136 or 37 per cent. of those discharged had been convicted of a further offence; within four years, 1,506 or 49 per cent. of those discharged were reconvicted. The numbers exclude the reconviction of a small number of discharges whose criminal histories could not be traced in the offenders' index.