Written question asked by Cheryl Gillan (Conservative) on Wednesday, 10 March 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 April 2004. It was answered by Caroline Flint (Labour) on Monday, 19 April 2004 on behalf of the Home Office.

Home Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his statement of 14th January, 416 c277WH, on drug testing, what plans he has to market the national workplace initiative; and what budget has been set aside for the campaign. - Inc figures.

Answer: Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his statement of 14 January 2004, Official Report, column 277WH, on drug testing, what plans he has to market the national workplace initiative; and what budget has been set aside for the campaign. [161180] Caroline Flint: Marketing the National Workplace Initiative has been a priority for the last six months within phase 2 (September 2003 to March 2004) of the workplace initiative. Phase 2 has focused on providing key business tools to help employers develop robust drug and alcohol workplace policies based on best practice, and to raise awareness on substance misuse. The key tools have been employer guidelines, employee leaflets and providing marketing and substance misuse training to DAT nominated business trainers to enhance the way they engage with businesses. Other marketing tools include rolling out the West Sussex DAT `E-online training tool' as a National Initiative and creating a business focused website at www.businessengagement.com. Overall these marketing initiatives will lead to greater awareness of the National Workplace Initiative and will encourage more employers to write a workplace policy. The budget set aside for marketing was £100,000 and this has covered all the printing and production costs of 15,000 employer guidelines, plus the costs of building a website and rolling out the West Sussex DAT training tool.

Secondary information