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Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I must add a word here. I know something about substance misuse because I chair the National Treatment Agency for substance misuse. I have had a very useful conversation with the noble Lord, Lord Freud, about this issue. There are one or two misconceptions around. First, people now do not have to wait a year and a half to get treatment—it takes about three weeks, so it has gone down considerably in the last four or five years. Secondly, the number of people in treatment for addiction has doubled in the last 10 years. We are making progress. What worries me about this amendment is the identification of people who might be using drugs or alcohol. What about smoking, for example? There must be a lot of money spent on smoking, which the amendment does not cover. I understand where the noble Lord, Lord Freud, is coming from but it is difficult to identify people. We would not want to punish the children of addicts. One would want to give the parents help. There is evidence that families and parents are, in increasing numbers, coming for help through the drug treatment system.