Clause 1 - Aggravated supply of controlled drug
Drugs Bill
9:45 pm
Ms Caroline Flint (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (reducing organised and international crime, anti drugs co-ordination and international and European issues), Home Office; Don Valley, Labour)
Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Gale. I will attend to the group of amendments that are before us, which in different ways challenge the cut-off point of 18 in the clause. As has already been outlined by the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland—although he said that his amendments were probing amendments—amendment No. 9 would lower the age at which a dealer would fall under the clause. It would catch 16 and 17-year-olds who were dealing. Their offence would be subject to the aggravating factor. Likewise, amendment No. 28, tabled by the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham, and supported by the hon. Member for Upminster, would lower the age at which a dealer would fall under the clause yet further to the age of 10. Effectively, the amendment would mean that offences committed by those between the ages of 10 and 17 who were dealing would be subject to the aggravating factor.
I have listened carefully to what hon. Members have said about this issue, and I would not dispute that there are young people under the age of 18—and probably considerably under the age of 16—who are involved in dealing drugs. We need to ask some questions about who the adults are behind the supply of those drugs to those young people. We must carefully consider the way in which we determine how vulnerable different groups of people in society are to those influences.