§ Lord Blackwellasked Her Majesty's Government:
What proportion of funding for the organisation Action on Addiction comes from the public sector. [HL3881]
§ Baroness HaymanAction on Addiction does not receive funding from the Department of Health or from other government departments. We do not have records that would indicate whether it receives funding from other public sources. The organisation is engaged in a number of initiatives, including the endowment of a Chair in the Psychiatry of Addictions at the Institute of Psychiatry.
§ Lord Blackwellasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the assertion in the current poster advertisements by Action on Addiction that 40 per cent, of children will use drugs is correct. [HL3830]
§ Baroness HaymanThe Schools Health Education Unit, an independent research unit, has recently published figures for drug misuse by school children. These are based on a large number of local surveys in 1997, many of them funded by local health authorities. They are not necessarily representative of the United Kingdom as a whole:
Drug use ever by school year, 1997 Total Boys Girls 11–12 (year 7) 2% 3% 2% 12–13 5% 5% 4% 13–14 13% 14% 12% 14–15 (year 10) 25% 26% 24% Base 27,317 14,076 13,241 Source:
Balding J. Young people and illegal drugs in 1998. Schools Health Education Unit, Exeter, 1998.
The 1996 National Drugs Campaign Survey by the Health Education Authority suggested that 16 per cent. of 11–14 year olds and 40 per cent, of 16–19 year olds have ever used drugs.
Action on Addiction is a charity whose primary aim is to research drug misuse. It does not receive funding from the Department of Health or from other government departments.