Written question asked by Bob Ainsworth (Labour) on Monday, 29 November 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 2 December 2010. It was answered by James Brokenshire (Conservative) on Tuesday, 7 December 2010 on behalf of the Home Office.

Drug Interventions Programme

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of Drug Inventions Programme in the last six months.

Answer: The Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) was established in 2003 to tackle class A drug misusing offenders by identifying, assessing and case-managing them to ensure they access treatment. In 2009-10, DIP was effective in managing approximately 58,000 adult class A drug misusing offenders into treatment.Some of the interventions were introduced in the Drugs Act 2005 and, in September 2010, the Department published the Post-Legislative Assessment of the Drugs Act 2005 (Cm 7935) for consideration by the Home Affairs Select Committee. This provided a preliminary assessment of the implementation and operation of the Drugs Act 2005, and showed that:"the introduction of testing on arrest and the initial and follow up assessment had significantly increased the number of those tested and those attending an assessment.""these powers had improved the grip exerted on drug using offenders through the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP)."

Secondary information