Written question asked by Mark Field (Conservative) on Monday, 21 May 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 23 May 2007. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Monday, 4 June 2007 on behalf of the Home Office.

Drug Interventions Programme

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what advice his Department has given to intensive service drug intervention programme (DIP) teams in London on changes in funding to DIPs.

Answer: The detailed spending of funds allocated to partnerships as part of the drug interventions programme is a matter for the partnerships who receive that funding.There has been significant investment in the drug interventions programme—over £500 million since its commencement. In the context of the changes of the funding allocations for 2007-08, the Home Office, through its close work with the Government offices for the regions and colleagues from the National Treatment Agency, is encouraging partnerships to concentrate on protecting front line operational services which are the key to getting drug misusing offenders into treatment. This might be achieved, for example, by looking at administrative overheads, working patterns and other areas for efficiencies, including whether funding provided for start-up costs can now be deployed in support of operations.

Secondary information