Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the changes in the rate of mephedrone use in the (a) Gosport and Fareham area and (b) UK.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
Data specifically on the Gosport and Fareham area is not available as the Crime Survey for England and Wales does not allow sufficiently robust estimates to be made for smaller geographic areas.
For England and Wales as a whole, the 2013/14 Crime Survey for England and Wales showed that the proportion of people aged 16 to 59 who said they had taken mephedrone in the last year was 0.6 per cent. This compares with 1.3 per cent in the 2010/11 survey. The table shows figures for each year available. Mephedrone was not specifically asked about in the survey before 2010/11.
| Proportion of 16 to 59 year olds reporting use of mephedrone in the last year, 2010/11 to 2013/14 | ||||||
| England and Wales, 2013/14 CSEW | ||||||
| Percentages | ||||||
| 2010/11 | 1.3 | |||||
| 2011/12 | 1.0 | |||||
| 2012/13 | 0.5 | |||||
| 2013/14 | 0.6 | |||||
| Source: 2013/14 Crime Survey for England and Wales | ||||||
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to address the drivers of crime.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
Crime is down by more than a fifth under this Government, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales.
We are addressing the key drivers of crime by reshaping our approach to alcohol; tackling illicit and harmful drug use; taking action in a number of areas to stop young people getting involved in crime; and closing off opportunities to commit crimes, for example, by legislating on metal theft.
We have also established the Crime and Policing Knowledge Hub to improve our understanding of crime trends and the drivers of crime.
At the end of the month the Home Office will also host the first International Crime and Policing Conference to bring together leading academics and law enforcement professionals to further understand the drivers of crime and our response.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has any plans to introduce legislative proposals to criminalise the legal high known as gocaine.
Answered by Norman Baker
I refer to the Written Ministerial Statement of 12 December 2013, Official Report, column 58WS, in which I announced that the Coalition Government would conduct a review into new psychoactive substances led by a panel of experts. I have now considered the expert panel’s report on the review. The Government will respond to the expert panel’s report and its recommendations shortly.
The Coalition Government has already banned over three hundred and fifty new psychoactive substances. We work closely with law enforcement to tackle this reckless trade.
"Gocaine" is a brand name used for compounds advertised as new psychoactive substances. "Gocaine" samples analysed through the Home Office Forensic Early Warning System (FEWS) suggest the brand is usually associated with a mixture of compounds, including methiopropamine (MPA) and methylenedioxy-2-aminiondane (MDAI).
Neither of these substances is currently controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. However, we continue to update our drug controls under that Act in response to the availability and harms of new psychoactive substances. Such controls are informed by independent expert advice through a system of regular reviews by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) which monitors the situation in the UK, including MPA and MDAI.