---

Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2014

I cannot accept that. When I spoke to the noble Baroness earlier, I said that I did not think I would be able to give her much comfort. We did not reject the ACMD’s report. As I explained, the ACMD is there to advise on particular aspects but, in the end, Ministers have to make decisions and be prepared to stand by them.

I turn to the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon. She has considerable concerns that we have not made proper efforts to prepare affected communities for this ban. I want to reassure her that we have done exactly that. We acknowledge that this is a finely balanced decision that needs careful and extensive preparation at national and local level. Our plans, which have been worked up over a couple of months, are in place and are ready to be rolled out once the draft order completes its parliamentary passage. We are waiting on a decision of the House to approve the order today.

I ask the House to note that, although we took a different view from the ACMD, we took on board its recommendations for locally led health and community-based interventions to meet local khat needs and for monitoring the situation in communities. I know that the noble Baroness would like to have a review after a year. We see it as a matter of continuous review and are specifying that a close eye will be kept on the impact of the ban. In this, we are going beyond the usual approach to the monitoring of newly controlled drugs, to ensure that locally and nationally collected data provide an evolving picture after the ban.

7 pm

Our policing response must be fair, consistent, proportionate and sensitive to local issues and community relations. We are grateful to the national policing lead on drugs, Chief Constable Andy Bliss, for taking a personal interest in the development of the law enforcement approach to khat and consulting policing leads on counterterrorism, stop and search and out-of-court disposals, which are all aspects that policing has to consider.

Working with the police, we have bespoke national policing guidance with a graduated system for dealing with khat possession cases. I apologise to the noble Baroness if I have not made a copy of that available to her. It is not a Home Office document but a police document. I will seek to secure it for her. In addition, we have a national community impact assessment, informed by 13 high-priority police forces, highlighting the specific issues that require a tailored community policing response. We expect it to be updated following the ban, and this will feed in to our monitoring activity.

The noble Baroness was very mindful of the need to support Somali communities. The Government have introduced reforms that empower local authorities to serve their communities’ needs. Khat is a local issue in many places and is best addressed through commissioning appropriate services tailored to the local community. This approach is in keeping with the advisory council’s findings, which made specific recommendations in this regard.

Public health directors and commissioners of health services will be central in delivering and reviewing our health and prevention response. Khat is now part of Public Health England’s joint strategic needs assessment guidance which analyses the health needs of a local population and informs how health, well-being and social care services are commissioned within local authority areas.

The Government’s drug information service FRANK will support wider prevention work, including online materials, such as the khat fact sheets translated into Arabic, Amharic, Somali and Swahili for use by local organisations.

We know that community leaders and relevant local authorities are ready to act. We have seen case studies of local partnership preparations which set out actions for community engagement and co-ordinated approaches across health, prevention, integration and law enforcement. We will also publish them so that learning can be shared and promoted.

The noble Baroness is right to raise the concern that khat users might replace it with other drugs or alcohol. We have considered this complex question with the Department of Health. The department’s approach will focus on preventive activities, including public health messaging, to alert khat users, specifically dependent and vulnerable users, to the dangers of other drugs and signpost them to support services.

The noble Baroness mentioned the conversation we had about support for Kenya. It is right that our decision to control khat is concerned primarily with the protection of the UK public and with the UK’s ability to reduce the threat posed by the international

khat-trafficking trade. Nevertheless we are committed to giving as much notice as possible to our international partners, including Kenya. The UK has a long-standing and constructive relationship with Kenya, a friendly nation. Our engagement includes a programme of aid to development that supports the delivery of independent projects, such as the market access programme, which is working to lift low-income Kenyan households out of poverty through access to high-value markets.

This co-ordinated response is in keeping with our overarching aims: to protect the public and communities from drug harms and to support dependent and vulnerable users into recovery. I assure the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon, that our response has been devised with those communities that use khat very particularly in mind, and we will continue to work with our partners, including those communities, to support the successful implementation of the ban.

This is the Government’s response to the amendment. I am sorry that the noble Baroness felt she had to table it. I am grateful to all noble Lords who have illuminated this debate. I respectfully ask the noble Baroness to withdraw her Motion, and I commend the two orders to the House.