here - United Kingdom Parliament

287WH
Drugs
6 JUNE 2013
Drugs
288WH
[Mr Jeremy Browne]
was some thought about whether that law was perhaps
too liberal and could be slightly tighter to restrict the
potential for abuse.
[MR CLIVE BETTS in the Chair]
My point is that there were many interesting features
of the experience in Portugal, as there were in Denmark
and Sweden. I am genuinely open-minded on this matter.
I approach open-mindedly what changes we could consider
and potentially even adopt in this country to make our
laws more effective.
I heard the point that was made by the hon. Member
for Kingston upon Hull North, who speaks for the
Opposition, and others about where responsibility lies
for drugs policy in the United Kingdom. It is worth
noting that in all the countries that I have been to so far,
the lead responsibility lies with the Health Department.
In this country, of course, the lead responsibility lies
with the Home Office. I am not sure that in practice that
is as significant as it is regarded as being by both those
who believe vehemently that it should remain with the
Home Office and those who believe vehemently that it
should not, because we have a cross-Government approach.
There needs to be a lead Department, and of course
much of drugs policy is about law enforcement, so there
is a persuasive case to be made for that being with the
Home Office, but we also of course involve the Department
of Health, the Department for Education, the Department
for Communities and Local Government, the Department
for Work and Pensions, the Cabinet Office and others in
a cross-Government strategy on drugs, so I would not
want anyone attending this debate to think that the
Home Office ploughed on without listening to other
parts of the Government.
The three parts of the strategy are demand, supply
and recovery. We have a range of initiatives on demand
reduction. The FRANK website and programme was
mentioned during our debate. That has been updated
and relaunched and is widely used as a source of
information—particularly, but not exclusively, by young
people. Another example is the Choices programme
that we have developed. That focuses on preventing
substance misuse and related offending among vulnerable
groups of young people aged 10 to 19. The programme
received funding of £4 million in 2011-12 and engaged
more than 10,000 vulnerable young people.
This issue is not just about schools. In fact, many
people take drugs for the first time when they have left
school—when they are adults. Schools have a part to
play, but so do other methods of education. It is worth
noting that the number of young people taking up
drugs and particularly school pupils experimenting with
drugs has fallen markedly, so there does not seem to be
a shortage of information among young people about
the harmful consequences of taking drugs. Indeed,
increasing numbers of young people seem to be mindful
of those harmful consequences and, as a result, have
not taken drugs.
Diana Johnson: In the light of the fact that for many
years, as I understand it, it has been Liberal Democrat
policy to have PSHE as part of the statutory national
curriculum, I wonder whether the Minister, as a Liberal
Democrat Minister in the coalition Government, is
satisfied that enough is currently being done through
the Department for Education to ensure that there is
good drugs education in all our schools.
Mr Browne: This is a wider issue. I will engage
seriously with the question, because I think that it is
fair. It is about the degree to which we, as a Government
and a country, use schools to inculcate desirable behaviour
in children of school age. There is a powerful lobby in
the House—I have received its representations—that
says that it is crucial for part of the curriculum in
schools to be about tackling drugs and the harmful
effects of drugs.
I have also had representations from people saying
that children should be taught in school about sexually
appropriate relationships and that that should be part
of the curriculum. I have also been told that children
should be taught in school about responsible financial
management, because children leave school without
necessarily being able to make mature decisions about
their personal finances. I have also been told that children
should be taught in school how to cook properly, because
large numbers of children are not as adept as hon.
Members at this debate are at making delicious meals
for themselves and that that should be part of the
curriculum. I have been told that healthy eating more
generally should be part of the curriculum in schools
because otherwise children would eat unhealthy food
through ignorance rather than because they preferred
the taste of unhealthy food. I have also been told that
there should be more awareness of alcohol and the
dangers of cigarettes and that there should be more
public health information generally.
The point that I am making is that there is a reasonable
nervousness in the Department for Education that,
unless we try to rationalise the activities that children
are taught about in school, all of which are individually
worthy—I think that everyone would accept that—teachers
might get to the end of the school day and find that
there is not much time left to teach children some of the
core academic subjects that parents rightly expect them
to be taught. There is a genuine debate about whether
schools are there primarily to create good citizens or to
educate children in core areas of academic knowledge.
There is scope for a bit of a trade-off. Most people
would want their children to be adept at maths, English
literature and other typical academic subjects and to be
rounded citizens at the same time, but there are only so
many hours in the day and the Department for Education
has to make some judgments about how to fill those
hours intelligently.
On supply, we work closely with partner countries in
Europe particularly. While I was in Portugal, I also took
the opportunity to visit MAOC—the maritime analysis
and operations centre—which is an initiative primarily
involving Atlantic-facing European countries, although
I think that the Dutch are also involved. They do not
really face the Atlantic; it depends how far one thinks
the Atlantic goes down the English channel. But the
United Kingdom, the French, the Portuguese, the Spanish
and others are working to try to intercept drug shipments.
Before becoming a Home Office Minister, I was a
Foreign Office Minister who covered, among other
places, Latin America. My right hon. Friend the Home
Secretary has met the Presidents of Colombia and