§ Mr. GapesTo ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office when she will report progress on the Government's 10-year anti-drugs strategy; and if she will make a statement. [137184]
§ Marjorie MowlamThe Anti-Drugs Co-ordinator's second Annual Report is published today and copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
The report sets out progress during 1999–2000 in delivering our targets across the four aims of the Government's 10-Year Strategy which reflect the balance of our policies across all aspects of the drug misuse problem. Those aims are: helping young people to resist drug misuse; protecting our communities from drug related anti-social and criminal behaviour; increasing the numbers of drug misusers in treatment; and reducing the availability of drugs on our streets.
We have met most of our annual targets and are on track for our targets for 2002. Key achievements include: the establishment of the Drugs Prevention Advisory Service (DPAS), with nine regional teams to support the work of Drug Action Teams (DATs); establishment of a 154W framework for a holistic approach to drug education in schools through Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) which is now in the national curriculum for the first time—Ofsted reports indicated that 93 per cent. of secondary and 75 per cent. of primary schools now have a drug education policy; targeted prevention work for young people at risk through Health Action Zones; arrest referral schemes covering all custody suites in all police forces in England and Wales expected well ahead of our 2002 target; steady increase in drug misusers attending treatment services—around 7 per cent. over six months from March 1999 to September 1999; CARATs—the Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare programme for drug misusers is now available in every prison in England and Wales; and co-ordinated law enforcement activity leading to some £1.2 billion of Class A drugs being prevented from reaching our streets—an increase of 33.5 per cent on the previous year; and an increase of 9.2 per cent. in the number of Class A trafficking groups disrupted-nearly double the target.
Good progress has been made, but there is still a lot to do. New money made available to the Anti-Drugs Strategy under the Spending Review for 2001 to 2004 will help us to do more to drive forward the Strategy's key targets for 2005 and 2008 and increase our proactive efforts to prevent and tackle drug misuse.