§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list for each metropolitan borough council in south Yorkshire, how many children were identified as drug addicts in each year since 1988 by type of drug; and what assessment he has made of the incidence of drug addiction amongst children in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythUnder the Misuse of Drugs (Notification of and Supply to Addicts) Regulations 1973, doctors are required only to notify the Home Office if they attend persons they know, or have reasonable grounds to suspect, are addicted to cocaine or any of 13 opiate drugs. Since 1988, the Home Office has received only one such notification from south Yorkshire—Rotherham—for a child under the age of 16 which referred to an addiction to cocaine.