Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 15 November 2005.
John Robertson
PPS (Dr Kim Howells, Minister of State), Foreign & Commonwealth Office
2:30,
15 November 2005
What discussions he has had with the First Minister and his ministerial colleagues on the measures required to reduce the availability of class A drugs in Scotland.
David Cairns
Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Scotland Office
I and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State have regular discussions with Scottish Executive Ministers on a wide range of issues.
John Robertson
PPS (Dr Kim Howells, Minister of State), Foreign & Commonwealth Office
I thank my hon. Friend for his reply. He will be aware of the By-election held in my Constituency in Knightswood Park last week, where Labour received 55 per cent. of the vote. One of the main issues on the doorstep was the effect that drugs are having on the community—[Interruption.] That is obviously not important to Opposition Members. I draw my hon. Friend's attention to the recent article in the Sunday Mail about the Daniels family, who amassed more than £16 million through drug peddling. Will he continue to work closely with the Scottish Executive to find solutions to prevent the misery and havoc that the drug culture wreaks on our communities, and will he do something about these parasites?
David Cairns
Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Scotland Office
Every hon. Member is aware of the scourge of drug consumption—it ruins the lives of addicts, the lives of their families and the lives of those who have to live among people who deal in drugs. The Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency has had some considerable success. In the first six months of 2004–05, it seized more class A drugs than during the whole of the preceding 12 months, and so far this year it has seized class A drugs with a potential street value of more than £22 million.
My hon. Friend rightly highlights the work of the Assets Recovery Agency, which takes away the assets of those suspected of drug dealing. We cannot come down too hard on these people because they ruin lives and they ruin communities.
Michael Connarty
Labour, Linlithgow and East Falkirk
Does my hon. Friend agree that one way to deal with the availability of class A drugs is to deal with demand? Everywhere I have been—Colombia and Afghanistan—the argument has been that if we were not demanding drugs, they would not be supplying them. One problem appears to be that we still use a methadone substitute for those who are addicted, but buprenorphine has been used in other countries—and in an experiment in Bassetlaw—to wean people off substitutes for heroin. Will my hon. Friend discuss that with the Scottish Executive and bring the results of that experiment to their notice, so that they might use a drug that can get people off heroin and its substitutes?
David Cairns
Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Scotland Office
I have heard our hon. Friend John Mann speak about that initiative in his Constituency. It sounds like a very exciting initiative that is worth studying. If the results are positive, I am sure that the Scottish Executive will wish to take a look at it. As for Afghanistan, the most recent findings from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime show that the production of the opium poppy, which has led to an increase in cheap heroin in the past few years, may be beginning to be reduced. Obviously, that is very welcome news indeed.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
A by-election occurs when a seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant during the lifetime of a Parliament (i.e. between general elections) because the sitting MP dies, resigns, is elevated to the peerage, or becomes ineligible to sit for some other reason. If a vacancy occurs when the House is in session, the Chief Whip of the Party that formerly held the seat moves a Motion for a new writ. This leads to the by-election taking place. Prior notice does not have to be given in the Order Paper of the House. There is no time limit in which a new writ has to be issued, although by convention it is usually done within three months of a seat becoming vacant. There have been times when seats have remained empty for more than six months before a by-election was called. The sitting party will obviously choose a time when they feel confident of success. Seats are often left vacant towards the end of a Parliament to be filled at the General Election though this is not always the case and by-elections have sometimes occurred just before the dissolution of Parliament. While a vacancy exists a member of the same party in a neighbouring constituency handles constituency matters. When the new Member is elected in the by-election, all outstanding matters are handed back. Further information can be obtained from factsheet M7 at the UK Parliament site.
The Opposition are the political parties in the House of Commons other than the largest or Government party. They are called the Opposition because they sit on the benches opposite the Government in the House of Commons Chamber. The largest of the Opposition parties is known as Her Majesty's Opposition. The role of the Official Opposition is to question and scrutinise the work of Government. The Opposition often votes against the Government. In a sense the Official Opposition is the "Government in waiting".
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
