Clause 22 - Financial provision
Drugs Bill
4:45 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)
As I said, we are already putting in a huge amount of resources anyway. Our estimates indicate that about 200 extra drugs workers will be funded under the spending review 2004. That will accommodate not only the additional assessments that result from the mandatory assessment provisions, but the follow-up appointments. As I said, we have already made substantial efficiency gains as a result of the better management of the different schemes. In fact, we have done appraisals of arrest-referral and drug-testing arrangements in a number of force areas, and we have produced guidance for those areas so that forces can improve their operation of these schemes. That has helped with a recent renewal of contracts. That experience is certainly helping.
We have tried to ensure that there is a better fit between, for example, the hours of drugs workers and the demands of clients. Sometimes, by simply changing the working of some of the drugs workers, we have made significant improvements in the number of cases dealt with by individual workers. However, we have built estimates into the spending review 2004 to accommodate some of those issues.
The hon. Lady talked about the implications for police forces of extending the power to detain persons, and we debated custody suites. We think that about 20 to 30 police forces will choose to use the power to detain persons suspected of swallowing drugs, at a cost of about £15,000 to equip one custody suite. The total cost, therefore, is between £0.3 million and £0.45 million. In some respects it is for forces to consider how best they can deal with the type of criminal in question, having regard to the management of their capital and personnel resources. As I have said, I do not think that the facility is needed at every police station. It is something to be worked out locally, and it would be difficult for us to work it out nationally.