Clause 7 - Testing for presence of class A drugs

Part of Drugs Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:30 pm on 1 February 2005.

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Photo of Caroline Flint Caroline Flint Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office) 4:30, 1 February 2005

I do not want to be diverted into that area. We are talking about the testing on arrest at this stage. We could have a big discussion about all sorts of drugs, but these are obviously all controlled substances. Therefore their use is restricted, and there are clear arrangements about how they should be prescribed.

I agree with the hon. Lady in one sense: methadone is a very serious drug, and must be handled properly and in a way which, where it is used as a substitute, minimises the risk of people using other drugs on top of it, possibly leading to a fatality. It must also be managed and used so that it does not turn up on our streets for other people to use.

My hon. Friend the Member for Bolton, South-East raised the issue of accreditation. The Home Office approves the equipment to be used by the police for drug testing within the drug intervention programme areas. The approval process is subject to a competitive tender, where the successful equipment supplier is required to comply with a rigorous specification and undergo extensive laboratory testing. The specification and the voluntary testing are devised and undertaken by expert forensic advisers to the Home Office. Obviously, this should not be confused with workplace or school drug testing. That is not an area that we feel that we have responsibility for. But my hon. Friend raises some important points about expansion. Schools or employers wanting to go down this route should think about the type of kit they might be using, how it would be used, and what benchmark would be used in accreditation.

I hope that has reassured my hon. Friend that, in terms of police testing, we think that it is very important that it is accredited and approved by the Home Office. It is not just left up to police forces to pick something off the shelf. Another reason for that is that we are putting a huge amount of funding into this programme, and we want to ensure consistency in quality of approach throughout the police forces currently operating within it, and as it expands. A lack of consistency would affect us in all sorts of ways, not least with regards to the quality and vigour of the information we get back.

On the issue of assessment, I have had many discussions over the last 18 months with lots of different people—from the voluntary and private sectors, within Government and the Department, users, parents, and carers—in many different parts of the country about this whole issue and the element of coercion in the whole process. Funnily enough, I have found that, in a number of areas, the general response   has overwhelmingly not been a negative one—for example, with regard to conditions on bail and the fact that we are saying that a user's participation could affect their sentence. An element of coercion has been quite helpful for many drug users in making them face up to the situation they find themselves in. Part of that is getting people in front of them who can explain to them what sort of support, and care plan, they are likely to receive. For a number of problematic drug users, it is not that they have not had treatment in the past. They have often had treatment in different forms, but it has not necessarily worked. Many of them have been in prison before. They have had detox and come out of prison, but at the end of the day there has been no throughcare and aftercare.

Part of what we are attempting to do is demonstrate that there has been a change. There is more to be done, but the waiting time for treatment has gone down nationally, and in drug intervention programme areas it has gone down faster. The wrap-around care and support that follows people through the criminal justice system and which will follow them as they leave it, whether they have had a community-based sentence or a custodial sentence, is something the like of which we have never seen.

When I have spoken to users or former users who have come through a drug intervention programme or for that matter been subject to a drug testing and treatment order and I have asked them about the more coercive elements, the response has been good. Sometimes they have made the point referred to by the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland: that one can lead a horse to water but one cannot make it drink. I do not like to use that expression about people, but he used it and I shall too. Some users, when told, for example, that they are subject to a DTTO, have reacted in a quite hostile and negative way. At that point, when they are forced to face their situation, the quality of the engagement will make a difference to whether their mindset about the treatment will be changed.

I met such an individual in Manchester not long ago—a real hard case who had been round the block hundreds of times, to whom, as far as he was concerned, nothing more could be offered—but I am pleased to say that after he had been involved in a programme for three months or so, his life was being turned around. That is not to say that he would not face risks and difficulties in the future, but the change was happening, and it would not have happened without a wake-up call telling him that he was going to be a part of the programme, and that whether he liked it or not he would be assessed and see someone and turn up for the appointment.

Of course, the important thing is to develop best practice to encompass issues that the hon. Gentleman and DrugScope raised, such as attendance at appointments, and recognition of and dealing with chaotic lifestyles. However, we have reached the point at which we need the assessment to be brought closer to the test, and made part of the process.

For a long time I have felt, having been to see testing in police stations, that the process of conducting the test, followed by the wait for the person to decide whether to see an assessment worker voluntarily, is a lost opportunity. It is right to make the mandatory assessment element part and parcel of the testing process.

I hope that I have answered most of the questions of hon. Members and not missed anything. If, having consulted Hansard, I find I have missed something, I shall write to hon. Members as appropriate.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 7 ordered to stand part of the Bill.