§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many registered drug users there were on Merseyside in each year since 1994. [64617]
§ Jacqui SmithI have been asked to reply.
The term registered drug addict was based on the Home Office collection of data between 1968 and 1997. Since 1997, the description problem drug users has been used for people who present to treatment services.
Nationally, the number of individuals in drug treatment has been estimated from the number of reports made to the regional drug misuse database, which records information on an individual for the first time that person visits an agency, and for the first re-visit in six months or more. These data, therefore, underestimate the total number of individuals receiving specialist drug treatment in any given year. The number of reports made to the Merseyside and Cheshire drug misuse database by Merseyside drug treatment agencies is shown in the table:
Number of individuals accessing Merseyside drug treatment services Year Number of people 1994 1,323 1995 1,110 1996 1,273 1997 1,298 1998 1,914 1999 1,906 2000 2,103 In 1996, an additional drug treatment monitoring database, which was prevalence-based, was established in Merseyside and Cheshire. The period prevalence database records information from drug treatment agencies on individuals seen by the agency within a year, regardless of how long they have been in contact with services. These figures give the numbers of individuals receiving structured treatment in-year. The numbers for Merseyside drug treatment agencies were as follows:
Year Number of people 1997 5,238 1998 5,505 1999 5,241 2000 5,656