Call for Evidence

Background

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. It also saw the publication of phase two of Dame Carol Black’s Independent Review of Drugs. Phase one of the Review looked at the ways in which drugs are fuelling serious violence. Phase two looked at drug treatment, recovery and prevention.

In December 2021, the Government published its 10-Year Drugs Strategy for England and Wales, which it has said seeks to implement all of Dame Carol’s recommendations. The three aims of the Strategy are to: break drug supply chains; deliver a world-class treatment and recovery system; and achieve a generational shift in demand for drugs.

The backdrop to these developments is the level of drug-related offending and drug-related deaths across the UK. In England and Wales, drug crime peaked in 2008/09 but has been rising again in recent years. In 2020/21 there were around 210,000 drug offences recorded by the police. Drug related deaths in England and Wales have also increased year on year from 2,652 in 2011 to 4,561 in 2020 – a 72% increase. Of the 4,561 deaths, two-thirds were deaths due to drug misuse.

In Scotland, 35,410 drug offences were recorded by the police in 2020/21. There has been an upward trend in drug-related deaths in Scotland since records began in 1996. In 2020 there were 1,339 drug-related deaths – the highest number ever recorded in Scotland.

In Northern Ireland, the police recorded 8,465 drug offences in 2020/21. The latest statistics show that in 2019 there were 191 drug-related deaths in Northern Ireland. This, too, is the highest number recorded since records began in 1997.

Terms of reference

The Committee invites evidence on the questions below. Submissions do not need to address every question.

The UK drug framework

• How effective is the UK drug framework in today’s society? This may consider:
  • its effectiveness in dealing with drug use and addiction;
  • its effectiveness in preventing drug related deaths;
  • its effectiveness in deterring drug related offending;
  • drugs classification under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971; and
  • what (if any) impact the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 has had since it came into force.
• Does the current framework, or a particular aspect of the framework, need to be reformed?
  • If so, how?
  • Could reform align with the UK’s international obligations under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, as amended by the 1972 Protocol; the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971; and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988?
• Should a ‘right to recovery’ (the right of a person dependent on drugs to seek drug treatment and services) be legally enshrined in UK law?

UK drug policy

• What are the trends and patterns in drug use across the four UK nations? Responses to this may speak to some or all of the nations.
• What is your view on the UK Government’s 10-Year Drug Strategy for England and Wales, which was published in December 2021?
• Are there particular policies at national or local level across the four UK nations that have been effective in reducing:
  • drug use,
  • drug related deaths, and/or
  • drug related offending?

The impact of drug use in the UK

• What is the impact of drug use? In particular, on:
  • drug users and their loved ones;
  • local communities and wider society;
  • the economy.

International comparisons

• Are there laws, policies or approaches adopted in other countries that have been effective in reducing:
  • drug use,
  • drug related deaths, and/or
  • drug related offending?
• If so, could they reasonably be expected to work in the UK?

Submissions on the terms of reference set out above should be received by 12 noon on Thursday 24 March 2022.

If your submission is accepted by the Committee, it will usually be published online. It will then be available permanently for anyone to view. It can’t be changed or removed. If you have included your name or any personal information in your submission, that will normally be published too. Please consider how much personal information you want or need to share.

If you would like to ask the Committee to accept your submission anonymously (meaning it will be published but without your name), or confidentially (meaning it won't be published at all), you can make this request when you upload your submission.

Please note that the Committee can only formally consider submissions which have been written specifically for its inquiry. This means that reproduced material which has already been published elsewhere will be treated as background information; the submission will be shared with the Committee but it will not be accepted or published as written evidence. If you wish to share material with the Committee which has already been published elsewhere, you may do so by emailing it to homeaffcom@parliament.uk.

If you have any questions, please contact homeaffcom@parliament.uk

Important information about making a submission

Written evidence must address the terms of reference as set out above, but please note that submissions do not have to address every point. Guidance on giving evidence to a select committee of the House of Commons is available here.

In line with the general practice of select committees the Home Affairs Committee is not able to take up individual cases. If you would like political support or advice you may wish to contact your local Member of Parliament.

The Committee will decide whether to accept each submission. If your submission is accepted by the Committee, it will usually be published online. It will then be available permanently for anyone to view. It can’t be changed or removed. If you have included your name or any personal information in your submission, that will normally be published too. Please consider how much personal information you want or need to share. If you include personal information about other people in your submission, the Committee may decide not to publish it. Your contact details will never be published.

Decisions about publishing evidence anonymously, or about accepting but not publishing evidence, are made by the Committee. If you would like to ask the Committee to accept your submission anonymously (meaning it will be published but without your name), or confidentially (meaning it won't be published at all), you can make this request when you upload your submission.

The Committee has discretion over which submissions it accepts as evidence, and which of those it then publishes on its website. We may anonymise or redact some of your submission if it is published. The Committee may decide to accept evidence on a confidential basis. Confidential submissions remain available to the Committee but are not published or referred to in public. All written evidence will be considered by the Committee, whether or not it is published.

If your evidence raises any safeguarding concerns about you, or other people, then the Committee has a duty to raise these with the appropriate safeguarding authority.

If you have immediate safeguarding concerns about yourself or someone else, you should contact the Police on 999.

We can’t publish submissions that mention ongoing legal cases – contact us if you are not sure what this means for you.

Submissions on the terms of reference set out above should be received by 12 noon on Thursday 24 March 2022.

If you wish to submit evidence after this time, please email homeaffcom@parliament.uk for more information.

Signposting

We understand that the issues raised in this work may be sensitive or upsetting. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this inquiry, you may wish to contact your GP or the following organisations:

Adfam For local support groups in England, Scotland and Wales and helpful information online for families affected by drugs and alcohol.

Frank National Drugs Helpline Call 0300 123 6600 for confidential advice, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Drugs and Alcohol NI Services directory – information on drug and alcohol treatment and support services available across Northern Ireland.

Samaritans  Support and guidance for everyone.  Call: 116 123 - 24 hours a day, every day or Email jo@samaritans.org

Mind For information, advice, and support for anyone experiencing a mental health problem. Call: 0300 123 3393

Mind have information for people experiencing problems with drugs and a list of organisations offering support.

Please note that the Committee can only formally consider submissions which have been written specifically for its inquiry. This means that reproduced material which has already been published elsewhere will be treated as background information; the submission will be shared with the Committee but it will not be accepted or published as written evidence. If you wish to share material with the Committee which has already been published elsewhere, you may do so by emailing it to homeaffcom@parliament.uk.