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Home Office

Answer

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people arrested in (a) Haltemprice and Howden, (b) the East Riding of Yorkshire and (c) the Humberside Police Authority area tested positive for category A or B drugs in each quarter since 1997. [97723] Mr. Bob Ainsworth: At present arrestees throughout England and Wales are not routinely tested for drugs, so it is not possible to provide the level of detail requested. However, the New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (NEW-ADAM) research programme, which involves interviewing and drug testing those arrested by the police at 16 sites throughout England and Wales, does provide some information. Analysis of the data from the first eight sites in the survey, collected during 1999-2000, shows that of those arrestees that provided a urine sample, 65 per cent. tested positive for one or more illegal drugs, while 30 per cent. tested positive for two or more such substance. Indeed, 29 per cent. tested positive for opiates (including heroin) and/or cocaine (including crack). Drug test results are also available from three drug- testing pilot sites. The Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 gave the police power to drug test arrestees once they are charged with a "trigger offence" (these include property crime, robbery and specified Class A drug offences). The proportion of police tests, collected during July 2001 to February 2002, where results were positive for cocaine and/or heroin were: Hackney, 63 per cent.; Nottingham, 58 per cent.; Stafford and Cannock, 47 per cent.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

97723; 400 c397-8W;400 c390-2W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Crime Arrests Drugs Humberside Misuse Testing

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk