Schedule 1
4:15 pm
Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
I understand the Minister’s point and his reasons, and I am grateful to him for setting them out so clearly. The difficulty is that some people might not turn up to the meetings because they are in acute heroin withdrawal and need a fix. It is a key question whether that will be considered a reasonable excuse. If not, people will be penalised for drug addiction when the whole purpose of the rehabilitation is, I guess, to track them into treatment services. Although I accept and understand the Minister’s reasons for not giving a list, I think that people out there want to understand in that clear, obvious example what the Government’s intention is in establishing the statute. It is likely that those circumstances could arise several times.