Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2021 to Question 14128, for what reasons cannabis continues to be controlled as a class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 when the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) recommended that cannabis be controlled as a class C drug (a) since it was asked to review that classification by David Blunkett following a recommendation by the Police Foundation in 2000 and (b) in its recent report on Cannabis classification and Public Health, published in 2008.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government considers advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) before making any classification or scheduling decisions under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. ACMD advice is not binding and decisions are ultimately for Ministers. The decision to control cannabis as a Class B drug was taken under a previous government. However, this Government remains of the view that cannabis is a harmful drug for which the current controls are proportionate.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2021 to Question 5140, and to the Answer of 7 June 2021 to Question 7725 on Drugs: Misuse, what assessment she has made of the ethical implications of imposing legal penalties for use of drugs that have not been shown to cause harm.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government does not impose legal penalties on possession of drugs unless they have been shown to cause harm or to have the potential to cause harm. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) regularly provides advice on substances and their appropriate control status, and these are published on the gov.uk website. Drugs which have been controlled under the 1971 Act for a considerable period of time may not have been subject to recent analysis of their harms by the ACMD. The Government introduces new controls over drugs only after considering advice from the ACMD.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 June 2021 to Question 7725 on Drugs: Misuse, and with reference to the Government's response to the Health and Social Care Committee’s First Report of Session 2019, on Drugs policy, HC 1178, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policy of the absence of recent analyses of harm for several controlled and illicit drugs.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government does not impose legal penalties on possession of drugs unless they have been shown to cause harm or to have the potential to cause harm. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) regularly provides advice on substances and their appropriate control status, and these are published on the gov.uk website. Drugs which have been controlled under the 1971 Act for a considerable period of time may not have been subject to recent analysis of their harms by the ACMD. The Government introduces new controls over drugs only after considering advice from the ACMD.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's Review of the Psychoactive Substances Act, published in November 2018, what steps her Department has taken since the publication of that report to resolve that lack of evidence to evaluate the impact of the Act on rates of drug use and related harm.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We continue to collect and monitor a range of data on the use and harms of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), including:
These allow us to monitor trends and any changes in the use of, and harms from, NPS.
Alongside this data, our engagement with partners inside and outside government (including policing, charities, treatment providers and the devolved administrations) also provides an opportunity to gather and share any soft intelligence related to the use and harms of NPS.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons Heroin Assisted Treatment programmes are not eligible to apply for funding from Project ADDER.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Injectable opiate treatment programmes compliant with legislation and clinical guidance are supported by the Home Office and Public Health England and are in scope for Project ADDER funding. The Home Office and Public Health England have worked closely with delivery partners in each of the pilot Project ADDER areas to develop a delivery plan based on local need to provide a whole-system response to drugs misuse and drug-related harms locally.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ask the Chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) when he plans to reply to the letter from Professor David Nutt, Chair of the Drug Science Scientific Committee, dated 5 February 2021 on the ACMD's update report on medical cannabis from November 2020.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
As the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is independent from Government, its responses to correspondence are a matter for the ACMD.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 June 2021 to Question 7725 which noted that a number of controlled drugs have not been subject to analysis or recent analysis of harm, if she will take steps to commission a comprehensive review of the relative harms of controlled drugs to ensure that the UK drug classification and scheduling systems are consistent with the latest scientific and medical evidence available.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has no plans to commission a comprehensive review of the relative harms of controlled drugs. The Government takes expert advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) on classification of substances under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and scheduling under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001.
The Government commissions the ACMD to consider classification and scheduling of substances if, for example, new evidence about harms or legitimate uses emerges or there are issues of public concern. With regard to the scheduling of controlled drugs, the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001 exempts specified activities from the scope of the offences, for example, where controlled drugs are produced and supplied by healthcare professionals for medicinal purposes. The Home Secretary places controlled drugs in the appropriate schedule following consideration of advice from the ACMD. There is an established process for the development of medicines, overseen by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which enables medicines containing controlled drugs to be developed, evaluated in clinical trials and licensed based on an assessment of their quality, safety and efficacy before being made available to patients in the UK. When a medicine containing controlled drugs is made available following an MHRA assessment, it may be scheduled or re-scheduled under the 2001 Regulations as appropriate, following consideration of advice provided by the ACMD.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 June 2021 to Question 8524, whether value for money will be assessed as part of the Government’s ongoing monitoring and evaluation of its drug misuse programmes; and what steps she plans to take to deprioritise interventions that are not shown to be cost-effective in combating drug misuse.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office Accounting Officer has a personal responsibility to ensure that the Department’s budgets are used in a way that represents value for money for the taxpayer. A number of other departments deliver programmes to address drug misuse and their accounting officers have the same responsibility.
We have no current plans to deprioritise any aspects of our approach to tackling drug misuse, but we will continue to monitor and evaluate our drug misuse programmes across Government to learn what is most effective and inform future spending decisions.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 June 2021 to Question 8524, with reference to the outcomes framework monitored through the Drugs Misuse Delivery Board and the monitoring and evaluation frameworks in place to monitor the impact of the Government’s county lines programme and Project ADDER, how these frameworks were derived, including any relevant logic models; whether the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs were consulted to advise on their development; what metrics are being used and how data is being collected; who is responsible for the publication of the findings of these frameworks; and when the reports are expected to be published.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The County Lines Programme and Project ADDER is monitored at a number of levels including by the Combating Drug Misuse Delivery Board.
The Home Office has established the County Lines Task and Finish Group to oversee delivery of the County Lines programme. The Group meets regularly to drive forward progress, monitor the impact of the funding we are providing to tackle county lines and identify challenges. Through the Task and Finish Group we worked closely with delivery partners to develop a monitoring framework for the programme including reports on the numbers of lines closed. Since it was launched, in November 2019, our County Lines Programme has already seen more than 780 lines closed, over 5,100 arrests, £2.9 million in cash and significant quantities of drugs seized, and more than 1,200 vulnerable people safeguarded
For Project ADDER (Addiction, Disruption, Diversion, Enforcement, Recovery), the Home Office in partnership with Public Health England worked closely with delivery partners in each of the pilot areas and colleagues from across Government to develop a theory of change and monitoring and evaluation framework for the programme. This includes a variety of key performance metrics relating to enforcement, diversion into treatment, as well as treatment and recovery outputs. These metrics are being collected by areas using local data systems and are being monitored on a monthly basis through programme governance board to assess overall effectiveness of the programme
The Government works closely with the ACMD and continues to look at a range of evidence in developing its strategic approach to tackling drug misuse and identifying outcomes to monitor progress. However, given the nature of the programmes, the ACMD were not involved in the development of the county lines programme and Project ADDER outcomes framework.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 June 2021 to Question 8525 which noted that the cost of Operation Venetic is unknown, and to the Answer of 26 May 2021 to Question 5143 which noted that no assessment of the effects of Operation Venetic on the drugs markets has been made, if she will take steps to commission a full evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of Operation Venetic to the taxpayer, including estimates of (a) total costs across all relevant UK agencies; (b) total income raised from seized assets; (c) impacts on drug availability, rates of use, drug-related harms, and the associated costs and savings; and (d) impact on market-related violence and the associated costs and benefits, with reference to the finding of the Home Office’s 2017 evaluation of the 2010 drug strategy that drugs market violence is an unintended consequence of enforcing drug laws.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Operation VENETIC is an ongoing operation yielding tangible results on a weekly basis. As law enforcement continue to act on the significant volume of intelligence received from Operation VENETIC, we are not currently evaluating its impact. We will keep this under review. The National Crime Agency has led a number of investigations under Operation VENETIC and publishes regular press notices on the outcomes of these investigations. A wider overview of Operation VENETIC can also be found in the NCA’s 2021 National Strategic Assessment.