(Inverclyde)
(SNP):...Neil Woods, 14 years an undercover drugs cop,
would say exactly the same things. and , both Police
and Crime Commissioners, say that drugs must be
a health issue, not a criminal justice one...
(Easington)
(Lab):...I will focus my remarks on one issue, which has
the hon. Member for Inverclyde has already touched on, that I would
like the Minister to consider: consumption rooms. I am looking for
the Minister and the Home Office to empower and
resource Police
and Crime Commissioners, and allow them to take some
progressive actions and interventions. For example, in pilot areas,
where there is support for such an initiative, there could be
medically supervised consumption rooms to treat addicts and reduce
crime...
:...I have seen a
slide that shows the areas of greatest deprivation in the United
Kingdom, and if a matching slide is put beside it that shows the
areas where most harm is done by drugs, those maps pretty much
match each other slide for slide.
: Absolutely—I thank
the hon. Gentleman for that clarification. In conclusion, I
implore the Minister to facilitate a new approach to drugs policy
and to empower authorities in my constituency, such as our police
and crime commissioner, , and Chief Constable Mike
Barton—in the only police force in the country rated outstanding
by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary—who want to try a
new approach. Will the Minister allow a pilot scheme so that we
can at least evaluate the evidence and see whether it works, as
many experts believe it will?
: The Minister is
setting out the case for why there is an obstacle to change. In
Durham, for example, the police and crime commissioner, a very
experienced chief constable and all the agencies say, “Give this
a try.” They believe that decriminalisation will work, because
the evidence suggests that. Why does she not pilot such a scheme?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department (Victoria Atkins):...One or two Police and
Crime Commissioners may say that—I know, because they write to me
regularly—but the majority of them do not share that view. That
is not to say that we cannot have a debate about this, but let us
please not pretend that that is the view of the Association of
Police and Crime Commissioners...
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