Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Offenders: Illegal Drug Addiction

Tuesday 14 December 2021 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 2 Partly answered 0 Not answered 0

Key points

  • The Department plans to invest 780 million in a new drug strategy to improve treatment and recovery services.
  • The strategy aims to increase drug and alcohol treatment services and includes 950 additional staff.
  • The Minister highlighted the success of local police forces in addressing county lines drug export issues.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Simon Baynes
Justice & Courts Mental Health
Context

The question arises from the need to address illegal drug addiction among offenders, which is a significant issue requiring comprehensive plans for rehabilitation.

Question

What plans his Department has to support offenders to end an illegal drug addiction. The question highlights the importance of providing effective support and resources to help those struggling with drug addiction to reintegrate into society.

Answer from Kit Malthouse

Our landmark cross-Government drugs strategy sets out an ambitious long-term vision and includes £780 million of additional investment in treatment and recovery—the largest ever single increase. This will increase and improve treatment services, including providing 950 additional drug and alcohol criminal justice workers. The specialist drug and alcohol workers will give the police, courts and probation the facilities that they need to assess offenders and give sentencers confidence that they can make greater use of community sentences, because they will know that the treatment will be available.

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Q2 Simon Baynes
NHS
Context

The police efforts in Clwyd South and Wrexham to dismantle county lines have been successful, prompting the need for further information on how the £780 million allocated for new approaches to treatment will be implemented locally.

Question

Will the Minister please provide more information about the other main aspect of the Prime Minister's 10-year drug strategy, the £780 million devoted to new approaches to treatments, and how that will be put into effect in Clwyd South and elsewhere in the UK?

Answer from Kit Malthouse

I am pleased that my hon. Friend is seeing the impact in his constituency of the remarkable work that his police force have been doing, mainly with Merseyside police, who are the chief exporter to his part of the world of that appalling practice of county lines. We have indeed been remarkably successful in driving the numbers down, but if we are to make that a permanent reduction we need to reduce the demand for those drugs, particularly from heroin and crack addicts. So we will be spending significant amounts of money, as he outlined, on treating their addiction, as well as making sure that they face the consequences of their crimes. That money will be channelled through local authorities. It will take time for them to rebuild and retrain the people required to deliver those services, but I am confident that over the next 10 years we will make a significant difference.

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