Clause 18 - Orders under this Part and guidance
Drugs Bill
2:30 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)
I shall deal first with the question of age. Clause 18 provides that any order made by the Secretary of State under clauses 9(4) and 10(5) to amend the age at which persons may be required to attend the initial and follow-up assessments must be approved by resolution of both Houses. That will allow the power to require persons to attend such assessments to be extended to young people if it is considered necessary and appropriate. It also requires the police and others carrying out assessments to have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State under part 3 when exercising any functions under that part. That will ensure that note is taken of any additional safeguards thought necessary to protect the rights of those affected by the provisions.
The hon. Lady is, I hope, aware that we are piloting drug testing on charge, and voluntary arrest referral for young people, which comes in at a later stage than for adults. We may want to go down that route in future, so we are considering the emerging findings of those pilot schemes to see whether the same requirements are necessary for younger people as for older people.
The figures on testing, for example, are telling us whether the amount of class A drugs showing up on testing is comparable to adult testing. It will allow us better to think how we might plan the expansion of testing and assessment for young people. It is not that we do not think it important, but work on testing adults is further advanced, and we want to ensure that the Bill leaves open the opportunity to expand. As we are talking about young people under the age of 18, we think it appropriate that such provisions should be discussed by Parliament. As during our debates over the past few weeks, people will probably want to discuss capacity, and what support and treatment is available. I hope that that answer satisfies the hon. Lady.
The other question was about the reference to different police areas. The hon. Lady is probably aware that the drug intervention programme focuses on areas with the highest levels of acquisitive crime linked to drug misuse that we can identify. Although the programme is not yet available throughout the country, we have identified the basic command unit areas that have the most problems in dealing with such crimes and the associated drug taking. That will allow us to include other police areas as and when appropriate, based on need and on their capacity to deliver. I hope that reassures the hon. Lady.