Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of project ADDER in combating drug crime in Blackpool.

Through Project ADDER (Addiction, Diversion, Disruption, Enforcement and Recovery) we are trail-blazing a whole-system response to combatting drug misuse in 13 hardest hit areas across England and Wales.

Project ADDER is underpinned by a robust monitoring and evaluation framework. Our internal monitoring shows positive early signs. Between January 2021 and September 2022 across all sites, Project ADDER boosted activity and supported: over 1,600 Organised Crime Gangs disruptions; £7m in cash seized; nearly 20,500 arrests; over 12,400 Out of Court Disposals offered; and over 28,500 drug treatment interventions.

Partner feedback in Blackpool is positive with increased partnership working between the police, Local Authority and service providers to address drug related crime and support people into treatment and wider services.

The Home Office have also commissioned Kantar Public to undertake an independent evaluation of Project ADDER, and this is due to report in late 2023. The evaluation will look at how Project ADDER has been implemented across all Project ADDER sites and the overall impact of the programme in meeting the aims and objectives to reduce drug use, drug-related offending and drug-related deaths.