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House of Lords

Tuesday, 9 June 2015.

2.30 pm

Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Derby.

Introduction: Lord Keen of Elie

2.38 pm

Richard Sanderson Keen, Esquire, QC, having been created Lord Keen of Elie, of Elie in Fife, was introduced and took the oath, supported by Lord Mackay of Clashfern and Lord Faulks, and signed an undertaking to abide by the Code of Conduct.

Oaths and Affirmations

2.43 pm

Several noble Lords took the oath or made the solemn affirmation, and signed an undertaking to abide by the Code of Conduct.

Pensions: Draw-down Charges

Question

2.44 pm

Asked by Lord Bradley

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of charges on drawndown pension products; what plans they have to assess such charges on an ongoing basis; and whether they have any plans to impose a cap on those charges.

The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Freud) (Con):The new pension flexibilities have given people greater choice to select the retirement product that is right for them. The pensions industry is designing new draw-down products and will actively monitor the market as it develops. We already have the power to limit or ban decumulation charges and if we see that providers are charging excessive fees, we will not hesitate to act.

Lord Bradley (Lab): But does the Minister agree with his new ministerial colleague, the Pensions Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, who I am pleased to see on the government Bench, when she said in the Guardian this year that a cap on draw-down charges was important,

“so that customers are not ripped off”?

She further said:

“A 2% a year charge just to keep your pension invested and have access to it would take away much of the investment return and be a terrible deal for customers”.

In the light of these comments, do the Government intend to introduce a cap on such draw-down charges?

Lord Freud: We are going to see how the market develops. It has been going for only two months, and if it looks appropriate, as I just said, we will introduce a cap on charges. I know that my new noble friend, the

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Minister for Pensions, absolutely agrees with that. The Prime Minister has also promised that we will keep a close eye on this.

Lord German (LD): My Lords, at all stages between the pension saver’s pocket, the investment and back again, there are hidden charges and fees—admin charges, investment charges, platform charges, transaction charges and advice costs, to name just a few. Does the noble Lord agree that there should be transparency for pension savers, and that they should know what hidden fees and charges are attracted to the money that comes from their pocket?

Lord Freud: My Lords, I imagine that quite a lot of noble Lords in the House today will remember the amendment we made to ensure that we would get transparency of charging, and we are working on that process. That is for accumulation funds, but there is no reason why we should not introduce the same thing for decumulation funds, if that is appropriate.

Lord Flight (Con): My Lords, the last Government introduced some really useful reforms for people saving for their pensions, and I trust the new Government will continue in that vein. I would simply make the point that it would be more useful if the Government were to put pressure on those firms providing products to have a reasonable charging structure, rather than seek to achieve this by legislative means. It seems to me that there is a very strong moral case for the Government so to do.

Lord Freud: We are doing that, as exemplified by the new Pensions Minister meeting the industry and working with it to make sure that it produces the right level of charging. The Government and the FCA are able to monitor that to see that we get appropriate and fair charges.

Baroness Drake (Lab): My Lords, I refer to my entry in the register of interests, including my role with the Pensions Advisory Service. Some providers of income draw-down will charge between £150 and £200 each time a customer takes out cash, so a person with a £30,000 pot who takes out £5,000 in cash over six years will lose between £900 and £1,200. Will the Minister challenge the industry on why the charge to access cash now is so ridiculously high?

Lord Freud: As I said at the outset, this market is two months old and we are watching very closely to see how the charges develop. There is a range of different charges; some providers charge for drawing down and others do not, but we will be watching it very closely.

Lord Hughes of Woodside (Lab): My Lords, when this policy was first made, to a great fanfare of trumpets, the Government were warned of the difficulties that would arise unless they took control of the matter. What the Minister is really saying is that no planning was done whatever and no thought whatever was given to how this matter would develop. Is he aware that, the way things are going, this will make the PPI scandal look like a children’s tea party?

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Lord Freud: My Lords, noble Lords will be pleased to know that a great deal of effort has gone into making sure that this reform works. In particular, we introduced guidance in the shape of Pension Wise. We are working with the industry and monitoring what is happening. As I said, we will be prepared to go in and put caps on charges and address the issue of transparency if that is thought to be necessary.

Lord McFall of Alcluith (Lab): My Lords, complexity and inertia still define the characteristics of this industry. The Government said that they would not hesitate to intervene if there is a rip-off, but rip-offs take place daily at the moment. In the absence of the Government’s will to go one step further, is there not a compelling case to ensure that the cash element is disclosed in these documents, so that people can see exactly what they are being charged on a monthly or yearly basis?

Lord Freud: That is one of the things that we will look at very closely. Clearly, we need to get evidence of how this particular part of the market develops. We already have transparency in the accumulation phase. If that is necessary in the decumulation phase, we will not hesitate to introduce it.

Lord Davies of Stamford (Lab): My Lords, you do not need to wait to watch the market to believe that transparency is absolutely essential in any honest financial business. Why cannot the Government decide that there should be complete transparency of charges from the beginning? Should they not have decided that at the outset, when they introduced this new reform?

Lord Freud: My Lords, we have a marketplace and it is fair to give it a chance to develop. At the moment, according to the FT and Which?, the annual charges applied to decumulation pots are somewhere between 0.25% and, for high-end performers, 1%. For the set-up, the charge is somewhere between £70 and £300. As we start to gather this evidence and assess it, we will know whether we need to intervene.

Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab): Is the noble Lord’s ministerial colleague, sitting at his side, equally in favour of this watching approach?

Lord Freud: I think the noble Lord will be able to see a quote saying exactly that: she is monitoring this very closely.

Housing Associations: Right to Buy

Question

2.52 pm

Asked by Baroness Gardner of Parkes

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to consult Housing Associations, local authorities and the general public before finalising the proposal to extend the right to buy to Housing Association properties.

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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con): My Lords, Ministers and senior officials in my department already engage with the housing association sector, local authorities and other key stakeholders, as they do on a continuous basis in relation to key policy issues.

Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con): Is the Minister aware of the very difficult position of some of those who bought their council flats in the early days, about 30 years ago, for about £10,000 and now find themselves as leaseholders with no income but a small—well, it is not that small—state pension? They now receive bills for more than £12,000 as part of their contribution towards the block. I understand that there are 24 such cases in one estate. How widespread is this situation, and what do the Government intend to do to avoid a similar situation arising if housing-association properties are sold in the same way?

Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, I recognise the problem that my noble friend talks about. Recognising the challenges that these leaseholders face, my department introduced a new law in August 2014 that caps the amount that councils can charge leaseholders for repairs to their home. This is called “Flo’s law”. It limits the amount that can be claimed by councils from local-authority leaseholders in a five-year period to £10,000 outside London and £15,000 inside London for government-funded works.

Baroness Hollis of Heigham (Lab): My Lords, I declare an interest as chair of Broadland Housing Association. Housing associations are mostly charities. As the chair of Peabody said:

“Peabody’s assets belong to us. They are not the government’s to sell”.

Does the Minister not agree that the forced sale of charitable assets at knock-down prices damages the housing chances of those desperate and on the waiting list, damages rural communities, damages the stability of housing finance and damages the very concept of a charity, what it does and why it even exists?

Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, this is not about seizing the assets of housing associations. The right to acquire currently operates on the basis that receipts from homes sold enable housing associations to reinvest in new affordable housing.

Lord Best (CB): My Lords, in carrying out the consultation that she has mentioned, would the Minister include the Institute for Fiscal Studies, along with commentators in the Economist, the Telegraph, the Times and the Financial Times, which have all pointed out the very grave consequences if this unfortunate policy is pursued?

Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, the Government, and in particular my honourable friend in the other place, the Minister, Brandon Lewis, are already leading the engagement with the sector on our housing commitments, as set out in our manifesto, and are happy to meet Members of this House and others.

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Lord Shipley (LD): My Lords, what guarantee will the Government give that they will replace houses sold on a one-for-one basis, given that, in the previous sale of council houses, only one house has been built for every 10 sold?

Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, the Government can go on their record on this, which is that under the coalition Government more council homes were built than in the previous 13 years. Also, if the new revitalised scheme does not yield that one-for-one replacement within a three-year period—the one-in-10 figure is actually quite misleading, because we are only at the end of the first three-year period of the first council home sold—the HCA will take on those properties and sell them.

Lord Cormack (Con): My Lords, how are we going to increase the supply of affordable housing, which is desperately needed, by selling some of the most affordable houses at very great discounts?

Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, when affordable houses are sold, the discount to date is then refunded back to the housing association by the Government. As for replacing affordable with affordable, that capital receipt allows a new similar home to be built.

Lord Richard (Lab): My Lords, the Minister said that the Government are already consulting housing associations on this policy. Has she found any housing association that approves of it?

Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, I have said that the Minister in the other place, Brandon Lewis, is engaging with the sector. I have not had any personal engagement with the sector, but I am very happy to report back.

The Lord Bishop of Rochester: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for confirming that intention to consult the sector. Is she able to offer any indication of how Her Majesty’s Government propose to implement this right to buy in relation to housing-association properties in small and rural communities, where such housing is often built on rural exception sites defined in the National Planning Policy Framework as intended,

“for affordable housing in perpetuity”?

Baroness Williams of Trafford: The right reverend Prelate is absolutely correct when he says that rural communities are different. The development of that particular policy is ongoing, and details will be set out in due course.

Lord Naseby (Con): My Lords—

Lord Spicer (Con): My Lords—

The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con): My noble friends are competing with each other. I do not think that we have heard from my noble friend Lord Spicer for a while.

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Lord Spicer: How many empty dwellings are there these days? When I was Minister for Housing, there used to be one million. Should not some of those be sold off, if appropriate?

Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, we have significantly dealt with the issue of empty properties. I shall get my noble friend the exact figures on the number of empty properties that have been brought back into use, but I can confirm to him that it is significant.

Baroness Howarth of Breckland (CB): My Lords, many of the houses developed through specialist housing associations have very expensive adaptations, many of them paid for by charitable donations and donors. Does the Minister not think that this is an area where there might be some protection to ensure that these houses move on to other severely disabled people when they are vacated?

Baroness Williams of Trafford: My Lords, I am sure the intention in this area will be set out in due course.

Air Pollution

Question

3 pm

Asked by Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the 29 April Supreme Court judgment on nitrogen dioxide levels, when they will bring forward plans to ensure that the whole of the United Kingdom complies with air pollution limits by 2020.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble (Con): My Lords, successive Governments have worked hard to improve air quality significantly in recent decades. Tackling air pollution continues to be a priority for this Government. We are fully committed to submitting revised plans to the European Commission by the end of this year with a view to ensuring that the UK is compliant with nitrogen dioxide limits in the shortest possible time.

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (GP): I thank the Minister for that Answer. Are the Government aware that the Mayor of London has said that he can bring London into compliance by 2020 if the Government act? Are the Government considering two measures that the Mayor of London has suggested? The first is a national scrappage scheme to get the worst-polluting diesel vehicles off the road, and the second is a proper government review of vehicle excise duty, which has encouraged more diesel vehicles on to the roads.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: My Lords, vehicle excise duty is clearly a matter for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to consider. While there are no plans at the moment for a national scrappage scheme, we will be keeping all measures under review. I assure noble Lords that the Government take the health consequences of this matter very seriously. I know from my few weeks in the department that this is being considered very strongly indeed.

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Earl Attlee (Con): My Lords, is it not the case that other European cities are experiencing very similar problems and that the reason is that some of the technical changes made to heavy goods vehicles in recent years have not delivered the benefits expected?

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: My Lords, my noble friend is right. It is fair to say that all countries in the EU have difficulties with adhering to the limits. The most recent figures show that 17 of the 27 EU countries are in difficulties on their nitrogen dioxide limits. That is why in this country we want to deal with it as swiftly as we can.

Baroness Parminter (LD): My Lords, I welcome the noble Lord to his new parliamentary role. With nitrogen dioxide at such high levels right across the UK, can the Minister say whether the Government accept that measures to achieve legal compliance will have to include a national network of low emission zones?

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: My Lords, this is one of the areas that we will be looking at. In London the mayor has been very strong about the zero emission zone and is also considering an ultra-low emission zone. There are a number of other towns and cities in the country which have a low emission zone. They are for buses in particular. Clearly this is part of the package that we need to look at. What the Mayor of London is doing is a very positive first step.

Lord Hughes of Woodside (Lab): My Lords, is the Minister aware that central London is virtually gridlocked during daylight hours? Travelling times are doubled at least. Has any assessment been done, or will he do an assessment, of the increased pollution caused by roadworks which are said to help cyclists and which will not be completed until the middle of next year? God help us all if that goes on.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: My Lords, obviously when we are implementing change there are always times when there are issues. Certainly one of the important features is to keep traffic moving—slowly, but moving—because it is when you have stop-start that you have some of the most significant particle emission. In the previous Parliament an investment of £278 million was made available for cycling and walking initiatives. They are all about getting all of us to change some of our habits so that we improve the air quality in our cities and towns.

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB): My Lords, have the Government costed the excess mortality and morbidity from atmospheric pollution in those areas that are exposed to high pollution? It is not only nitrous oxide but other diesel particulate matters that are causing a great deal of pulmonary damage—that is, lung damage.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: My Lords, the noble Baroness is right that health is one of the key features of this. It is why Defra is working closely with the Department of Health and with Public Health England and its expert committee. I do not have before me the

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figures on the costs in terms of health and I will look at that, but it is one of the reasons why this Government and the previous one have committed to spend £2 billion on measures precisely to deal with the two problems with pollutants.

Lord Borwick (Con): My Lords—

Lord Cunningham of Felling (Lab): My Lords—

Baroness Ludford (LD): My Lords—

The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con): My Lords, I think that sometimes noble Lords just want me to stand up and take control of the situation. We started with the Green Party and we have been going around the Chamber very carefully. If we go around in order then it is the turn of the Conservative Benches and, therefore, my noble friend Lord Borwick.

Lord Borwick: My Lords, I declare my interest as a trustee of the British Lung Foundation. Does the Minister agree that the best thing an individual can do to help with this dreadful air pollution problem—other than not driving, which is totally impractical—is to buy a new car? The newest cars are very much cleaner on average than the old ones that we drive.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: My Lords, my noble friend is of course right that we need to encourage the use of the ultra-low emission vehicles. That is why there has been considerable investment in the marketing of low-emission vehicles. Indeed, we in this country are now attracting global investment, with Nissan, which produces the Leaf electric car, duly investing £250 million to build a plant that will help to build the electric black cab. This is all part of the mix of things that we have to do.

Lord Cunningham of Felling: My Lords, it is not necessary for Members of your Lordships’ House to have a GCSE in chemistry to know that all oxides of nitrogen—as well as oxides of sulphur, for that matter—have a very deleterious effect on health and the environment. It is, however, necessary for your Lordships’ House to understand that this Government apparently do not have a comprehensive, wide-ranging set of policies to deal with the problem. As for suggesting that people buy new motor cars, that is akin to saying, “Let them eat cake”.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble: My Lords, I assure the noble Lord that my experience in Defra is that his description is not the case. A considerable amount is being done not only by the department but in working with local authorities and the EU Commission. This is all part of the plan that we will bring forward for public consultation later this summer precisely to deal with the point that the noble Lord made, which is that this is a health issue. That is why the Government are determined and will be bringing forward plans—because we are aware of the effect on people’s health.

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Burma: Rohingya

Question

3.08 pm

Asked by Baroness Warsi

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what emergency support they have provided in response to the flight of Rohingya refugees from Burma.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for International Development (Baroness Verma) (Con): My Lords, at over £18 million since 2012, DfID is one of the largest humanitarian donors in Rakhine, providing over 126,000 displaced and conflict-affected people with water and sanitation and reducing malnutrition and gender-based violence. We are also working on community dialogue and reconciliation and are one of the largest donors to a major rural livelihoods programme in Rakhine.

Baroness Warsi (Con): My Lords, I am sure that the whole House commends the Government for their consistent efforts in this tragedy. However, does my noble friend also understand the sentiments of Abdul Hashim, a Rohingya refugee now in the United Kingdom, who said last week:

“We don’t need food, we don’t need shelter, we don’t need education. We need rights”?

Could she detail the latest discussions that have taken place with the Burmese Government on what human rights groups have now defined as “systematic ethnic cleansing” and a “state policy of persecution” of Rohingyas by Burma?

Baroness Verma: My noble friend is absolutely right that there are some real, complex concerns and issues that need to be addressed. As she rightly pointed out with reference to one individual’s case—and there are many such cases—of course there is a great need for the Burmese to do a lot more and to be more inclusive of all communities in Burma. My noble friend will know from her own experience in her past role in the Foreign Office that the Government are very much involved in talking to the Burmese Government and in looking at how we can empower civil society organisations to work much closer within Burma. So a number of issues need to be addressed, but I think the Government are right in their position of working closely with Burma while being a critical friend and highlighting areas where we need to work much better.

Lord Avebury (LD): My Lords, the Foreign Office Minister, Hugo Swire, had to summon the Burmese ambassador in April to complain about lack of access and protection for humanitarian aid workers in Rakhine. Can my noble friend say whether that had any effect, and how much of the generous aid which the Government are giving to succour the victims of persecution in Rakhine is getting through to those victims? Can she also say what is happening about the 7,000 people at sea and whether ASEAN is mounting any sort of rescue operation to prevent them from losing their lives?

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Baroness Verma: The noble Lord is absolutely right to raise the issue of those people who are taking to the seas. There has to be much greater regional co-operation in that area. My right honourable friend Hugo Swire was right to call in the Burmese ambassador to speak to him on issues that concern the rights of people within Burma and what we need to do to address them. As the noble Lord is aware—I know that he also takes a very keen interest in this area—these discussions are ongoing, but we need to continually push hard to ensure that progress is being made. However, he is also right to highlight that the amount of aid we are giving in that country is there to help support a change in approach to helping people in Rakhine and to ensure that their rights are fully recognised.

Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (Lab): My Lords, does the Minister recognise that forcing desperate people into fleeing by sea is only the latest in a series of ethnic cleansing efforts against the Rohingya people in Burma? When the independent evidence of systematic genocidal cruelty which we heard about earlier is so clear, why do not our Government do what President Obama has done and restore sanctions to at least the level recently renewed by the United States?

Baroness Verma: My Lords, our priority remains to address the immediate humanitarian situation and human rights abuses that are occurring, while we develop more broadly with other partners a comprehensive plan that seeks to address the challenges that are facing that state. It is our responsibility to deliver that, and that is what we are focusing on at the moment.

Baroness Afshar (CB): My Lords, what is the evidence that the aid that is intended for those groups is getting to them? When discrimination operates at the kind of level when a whole part of society is regarded as being non-people, there is no way that humanitarian rights and entitlements can be bestowed on them without having some kind of control over the Government.

Baroness Verma: The noble Baroness is right to address that particular area of concern, but we are working very closely with civil society groups there and DfID is present there, so we are doing a lot on the ground. However, the overall problem needs to be addressed, and we must make sure that there is a collective response in addressing that particular serious issue.

Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab): My Lords, I welcome the noble Baroness to the Front Bench and to her new responsibilities. Can she tell us what discussions the Government have had with Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia regarding the safety of the Rohingya fleeing Burma?

Baroness Verma: First, I thank the noble Lord for his welcome. The issue is absolutely about getting those neighbouring countries to be better supported. We are trying to make more progress on that through our work in DfID and through our dialogue with those countries. It is right and proper that the neighbouring countries take greater responsibility for the refugees fleeing there, and we need to have a dialogue with nations such as Thailand and Malaysia and others in

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order to be able to respond with the assistance that is desperately needed. By providing food and shelter, we are assisting the refugees in their camps, and we are trying to be as supportive as we can be in this situation, which is becoming dire. Of course, we need to work much harder, and we need to get the neighbouring countries to work harder, towards the comprehensive plan that is so desperately needed.

Armed Forces Deployment (Royal Prerogative) Bill [HL]

First Reading

3.15 pm

A Bill to make provision about the approval required for the deployment of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces by the Prime Minister in the event of conflict overseas.

The Bill was introduced by Baroness Falkner of Margravine, read a first time and ordered to be printed.

Automatic Electoral Registration Bill [HL]

First Reading

3.15 pm

A Bill to impose certain duties on Her Majesty’s Government to ensure the accuracy, completeness and utility of electoral registers; to make provision for the sharing of data for the purposes of electoral registration; and for connected purposes.

The Bill was introduced by Baroness McDonagh, read a first time and ordered to be printed.

Referendums (Franchise) Bill [HL]

First Reading

3.16 pm

A Bill to amend the franchise for referendums in the United Kingdom to include all citizens of 16 years of age and over.

The Bill was introduced by Lord Tyler, read a first time and ordered to be printed.

Right to Die at Home Bill [HL]

First Reading

3.16 pm

A Bill to create a right to die at home.

The Bill was introduced by Lord Warner, read a first time and ordered to be printed.

Polling Day (Saturday) Bill [HL]

First Reading

3.17 pm

A Bill to make provision to move the polling day of all elections to a Saturday.

The Bill was introduced by Lord Kennedy of Southwark, read a first time and ordered to be printed.

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Built Environment Committee

Motion to Agree

3.17 pm

Moved by Baroness Stowell of Beeston

That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider the development and implementation of national policy for the built environment, and to make recommendations, and that the Committee do report by 23 March 2016.

Motion agreed.

Equality Act 2010 Committee

Motion to Agree

3.17 pm

Moved by Baroness Stowell of Beeston

That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider and report on the impact on people with disabilities of the Equality Act 2010, and that the Committee do report by 23 March 2016.

Motion agreed.

Sexual Violence in Conflict Committee

Motion to Agree

3.18 pm

Moved by Baroness Stowell of Beeston

That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider the United Kingdom’s policy and practice of preventing sexual violence in conflict, and to make recommendations, and that the Committee do report by 23 March 2016.

Motion agreed.

Social Mobility Committee

Motion to Agree

3.18 pm

Moved by Baroness Stowell of Beeston

That it is desirable that a Select Committee be appointed to consider social mobility in the transition from school to work, and to make recommendations, and that the Committee do report by 23 March 2016.

Motion agreed.

Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL]

Psychoactive Substances Bill [HL]

Second Reading

3.19 pm

Moved by Lord Bates

That the Bill be read a second time.

The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Bates) (Con): My Lords, the objective of this Bill is to protect the public. New psychoactive substances are not merely a bit of harmless fun providing an instant buzz. These

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substances are untested and unknown, with clear evidence of short-term harms and potential long-term adverse consequences. The trade in these substances is quite simply reckless. Those who perpetrate it have no regard for the welfare of the end user. Indeed, the producers of these substances deliberately seek to evade the controls on drugs by manufacturing products that mimic the effect of controlled drugs.

However, in mimicking the effects, these synthetic copies can also replicate the dangers associated with the original drug. It is not just the manufacturers of new psychoactive substances who take this cavalier approach to public safety. Those who sell them are not open and honest about the products that they are marketing. Instead, they seek to absolve themselves of liability by selling the substances in packages labelled “not for human consumption”, “plant food”, or some other fiction.

We should be under no illusion about the harms caused by new psychoactive substances. They have been associated with paranoia, psychosis and seizures, and tragically have led to the death of too many unsuspecting users. Indeed, the number of deaths has been growing at an alarming rate—from 29 in England and Wales in 2011, to 60 in 2013, with a further 60 deaths reported in Scotland in the year before last.

There has also been a sharp rise in new psychoactive substance-related inquiries by health professionals to the National Poisons Information Service. In addition to the health hazards, a number of local authorities have reported instances of anti-social behaviour in the vicinity of retail outlets selling these products, known as head shops.

The open sale of psychoactive substances on the high street and the internet gives the false impression that they are somehow safe to use. Indeed, it is for this reason that they are commonly referred to as legal highs. The very term seeks to reassure the user that they are both legal and safe. I have already sought to debunk the notion that these substances are safe. As for their legality, research has shown that nearly one in five in fact contain controlled drugs.

In short, many new psychoactive substances present a very real hazard to their users in the same way as controlled drugs. As they are untested, there is no way of knowing which, if any, are benign and safe to use.

Over the period of the last Parliament, we sought to deal with this challenge. We set up an early warning system to monitor closely the availability of these substances. The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 introduced temporary class drug orders so as to speed up the process of bringing harmful new substances within the tight controls of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. We have used the powers in that Act, as amended, to ban over 500 new psychoactive substances. Although these steps have afforded some protection, we found ourselves sucked into a game of cat and mouse: no sooner do the Government ban one substance than another pops up with a new chemical formulation designed to evade the current controls, with the added concern that these new formulations have greater potency. And so the process continues.

It was against that backdrop that, in December 2013, the Government appointed an expert panel to undertake a review of new psychoactive substances.

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The membership of the panel included representatives from medical science, social science, law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies, local government and those working in the field of education and prevention. The expert panel was asked to make a clear recommendation for an effective and sustainable legislative response to new psychoactive substances.

In coming to a view on the most appropriate way forward, the panel considered various alternative approaches and looked at how these had been applied in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, Ireland and New Zealand. The panel’s findings in relation to the regulatory approach adopted in New Zealand are instructive, given the interest shown in this approach by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform, chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, and including, on that inquiry, my noble friend Lord Mancroft, the noble Lord, Lord Howarth, and the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee.

In its own 2013 report into new psychoactive substances, the all-party parliamentary group was attracted to the New Zealand model because it afforded the prospect of low-risk substances being licensed for sale. However, the expert panel expressed a number of reservations about a regulatory approach and pointed to the difficulties of defining low risk from a legislative and harms perspective. The panel was also concerned that a regulatory regime would send out confusing messages about the safety of new psychoactive substances. Finally, in relation to New Zealand, it is worth recording that no applications for a licence have been submitted to the regulatory authority. Consequently, in practice, a blanket ban is in operation there.

Having considered the approach in New Zealand and elsewhere, the expert panel recommended that the Government develop proposals for a general prohibition on the supply of non-controlled psychoactive substances. Last October, the then Minister for Crime Prevention, Norman Baker, accepted the expert panel’s advice on behalf of the Government. This indeed has been the position of all three parties, reflected in the manifestos on which they stood in the general election.

The Conservative manifesto said:

“We will create a blanket ban on all new psychoactive substances, protecting young people from exposure to so-called ‘legal highs’”.

The Labour manifesto said:

“we will ban the sale and distribution of dangerous psychoactive substances, so called ‘legal highs’”.

The Liberal Democrats said that they would,

“clamp down on those who produce and sell unregulated chemical highs”.

I now turn to the detail of the Bill. Clauses 1 and 2 and Schedule 1 define a psychoactive substance for the purpose of the Bill. The definition is purposefully wide; it encompasses any substance that,

“is capable of producing a psychoactive effect in a person who consumes it”.

In defining what we mean by a psychoactive effect, our definition draws on scientific advice and international precedents, including the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances. As I have indicated, we make no apologies for the breadth of the definition. If we were to adopt too narrow a definition, we could, in a few months’ or years’ time, find ourselves having to

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bring forward further legislation because we were faced with a new generation of harmful substances that escaped the controls provided for in this Bill.

Lord Howarth of Newport (Lab): The Minister is arguing for the broad definition that is in the Bill. Will he clarify one point? If the Bill were already on the statute book as presently drafted and he felt moved today to send Lady Bates a bunch of flowers, the perfume of which would make her feel much more benevolent towards him and much happier about his absence on ministerial duties, would he be in breach of the law?

Lord Bates: We will come back to this many times in Committee, I am sure, but we are confident that that would not fall into this category. Clauses 2 and 3, as I am sure the noble Lord has read, set out very clearly that this is something that is taken and consumed for the purpose of achieving the psychoactive high to which I referred. So I do not accept his point, although I am sure that we will come back to it many times during the passage of the Bill.

While starting with a wide definition of a psychoactive substance, the Bill then seeks to narrow it, as in the Irish model, so as to exclude certain substances and activities—perhaps the noble Lord was slightly pre-empting my text—that are not the target of this legislation. The Bill does this in two ways. First, it provides for a list of exempted substances. This covers substances that are either already subject to regulation, such as controlled drugs, medicines, alcohol and tobacco, or those where their psychoactive effect is negligible, namely caffeine and foodstuffs. The Bill includes a power to add to or vary this list by regulations, subject to the affirmative procedure.

The second means by which legitimate activities are excluded from the ambit of the controls in the Bill is through the power, in Clause 10, to provide for exemptions to the main offences. Similar provision is included in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and has been used successfully, for example, to ensure that healthcare professionals, when acting in a professional capacity, are not caught by the offences in that Act.

Let me also assure noble Lords that if there is legitimate research into new medicines to tackle any number of the conditions that afflict the human race, the Bill will not be a barrier where such research involves the testing of psychoactive substances.

Having defined a psychoactive substance, Clauses 4 to 9 go on to provide for the key criminal offences. As the expert panel recommended, these focus on the trade in psychoactive substances rather than on the users. The Bill achieves this by making it an offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, import or export a psychoactive substance. The maximum penalty for these offences is seven years’ imprisonment. I should add that the way these criminal offences are constructed excludes psychoactive substances that are not intended for human consumption. So no offence would be committed, for example, where a person produces or supplies a psychoactive substance for veterinary or industrial purposes.

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I want to stress that there is no offence of simple possession. This mirrors the position with substances subject to a temporary class drug order. That said, if a new substance comes along where the evidence of harm is such as to warrant it being added to the list of controlled drugs under the 1971 Act, the personal possession offence in that Act would then apply.

As with the legislation in the Irish Republic, we have designed the enforcement framework so that the police, local authorities and other law enforcement agencies can adopt a flexible, proportionate response depending on the particular circumstances of a case. We need a system that is nimble enough to be able to nip problems in the bud before they escalate. In addition to the core criminal offences which I have described, the Bill therefore also provides for four civil sanctions: prohibition notices, premises notices, prohibition orders, and premises orders. Let me be clear that there is no requirement to escalate enforcement action through the civil powers before a criminal prosecution is considered. If the criminality is of such a serious nature as to justify an immediate prosecution, it is right and proper that the relevant enforcement agency should adopt that course.

Where the civil sanctions are an appropriate response, the prohibition notice and the premises notice will act as a final warning to those engaged in the production, supply, importation or exportation of psychoactive substances. A prohibition notice issued by the police, the National Crime Agency, the Border Force or a local authority will require the respondent to desist from undertaking relevant prohibited activities, such as selling psychoactive substances from a particular head shop or through a website. Where the prohibited activity is taking place on particular premises—again, the head-shop example comes to mind—a premises notice could be issued separately to the landlord so that they take reasonable steps to stop the prohibited activity taking place on the premises in question.

If the respondent fails to comply with a notice, the relevant enforcement agency can then move swiftly to apply to a court for a prohibition order or a premises order. Again, I should make it clear that there is no requirement to escalate a case through the civil powers. If the breach of a prohibition notice is so egregious, it is then open to the police or other enforcement agency to pursue a prosecution for one of the main offences in the Bill. A prohibition order or premises order will be made by the court, normally on an application from the police, a local authority or other relevant agency. It will be open to the court to attach such prohibitions, restrictions or requirements to an order as the court considers appropriate. Clause 21 gives some examples of these. This is by no means an exhaustive list and should not be read as such, but the examples given are significant—hence their inclusion in the Bill. A prohibition order could include a requirement on the respondent, perhaps the proprietor of an online business or of a head shop, to hand over any remaining stocks of psychoactive substances.

It would also be possible to attach to either a prohibition order or a premises order an access prohibition. This would operate much like the premises closure powers in the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime

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and Policing Act 2014. An access prohibition could bar all access to premises for an initial period of up to three months, extendable to a maximum of six months. An access prohibition is most likely to be used against commercial premises such as a head shop, but could relate to any relevant premises. Where the premises are used as a dwelling, it would be open to the court to allow limited access for those who habitually reside on the premises, but the decision will be one for the court to take. Breach of a prohibition order or premises order will be a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years’ imprisonment. The Bill provides for a right of appeal against these orders, and the respondent or other persons significantly affected by the order may apply to the court for the order to be varied or discharged.

Also included in the Bill are bespoke enforcement powers that will enable the police, National Crime Agency officers and customs officers to stop and search persons, vehicles and vessels. The powers to stop and search a person will apply where the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect that a person has committed one of the main offences in the Bill: namely the offence of producing, supplying et cetera a psychoactive substance, or the offence of breaching a prohibition order or premises order. In such a case, the officer may search the person for evidence of such an offence. The powers to search vehicles and vessels will apply where an officer has reasonable grounds to suspect that there is evidence of one of these offences in or on the vehicle or vessel.

Additionally, there are powers to search premises for relevant evidence and to seize such evidence. These powers are subject to judicial authorisation and extend to local authorities as well as to the police, National Crime Agency and Border Force officers. The Bill sets out other safeguards, including protecting material subject to legal or journalistic privilege. Further safeguards in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, including those in the relevant PACE codes of practice, will also be engaged.

Finally, the Bill makes provision for the forfeiture of seized items. Given that the whole premise of the Bill is that psychoactive substances are, or are potentially, harmful, we should not be allowing these substances, once seized, to re-enter the supply chain or to be returned to users. There is, therefore, a clear presumption that any seized psychoactive substances will be destroyed. Where there is evidence of an offence under the Bill, or the seized item is not a psychoactive substance, the Bill provides for a judicially authorised forfeiture process. There is also a fast-track procedure for the disposal of small quantities of a psychoactive substance where, for example, this is consistent with personal use and there is no evidence of an offence being committed under the Bill.

The words of the expert panel were that there was no silver-bullet approach to tackling this issue. The criminal justice response to the trade in psychoactive substances, as provided for in this Bill, must be seen in the context of our wider strategy to tackle the harms they cause. Alongside law enforcement activity to restrict the supply of new psychoactive substances, we are driving forward another key recommendation of the

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panel that we enhance our efforts to reduce demand, including through effective prevention programmes, and provide the right health-related services supporting individuals to recover from substance misuse. The dangers posed by new psychoactive substances are widely recognised, and there is now a broad consensus that the current approach is failing to provide timely protection where it is clearly needed.

The three main political parties represented in your Lordships’ House differed on many things in the recent election but, as I have indicated, there was welcome agreement on the need for a general ban on new psychoactive substances. That view is widely shared, including by the police, the Local Government Association, the Royal Society for Public Health and others. However, there is one further organisation that I should like to add to the list: the Angelus Foundation. Angelus was founded by Maryon Stewart to campaign on the dangers of new psychoactive substances following the tragic death of her daughter, Hester, in 2009. The Angelus Foundation knows more than most about the potential fatal consequences of these substances, so we should heed its words with care. It said this of the Bill:

“Angelus has led the call for a strong legal response to the easy availability of these legal substances and has long campaigned for fundamental measures to disrupt the supply of these legal drugs”.

The Bill is intended to help prevent further tragedies so that other parents do not have to suffer what Maryon Stewart and her family have had to endure.

During the later stages of the Bill, noble Lords will properly want to scrutinise its detail carefully, but I trust that the House will overwhelmingly be able to join me today in endorsing its core purpose. On that note, I commend the Bill to the House. I beg to move.

3.39 pm

Lord Rosser (Lab): I thank the Minister for his explanation of the objectives and purpose of the Bill and the reasons why the Government consider it necessary. In line with a commitment we gave in our manifesto for the general election last month, we support the Bill’s general approach to the increasing concern over new psychoactive substances and their effects, which it seeks to address. The proposed law is very much an extension of what we proposed in 2013 in an amendment to the then Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, which would have made it an offence to supply and sell new psychoactive substances in high street head shops. When the amendment was debated in this House it was, if my memory serves me right, not exactly received with universal acclamation. We will need to discuss the detail of the Bill and its proposed means—and their effectiveness, or otherwise—of achieving the desired goals.

Over the last seven years or so, in particular, we have seen the emergence of new psychoactive substances or “legal highs” intended to produce the same effects as drugs controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, including cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy. The chemicals in these substances are often neither legal nor safe for human consumption. They can be difficult to identify because of their diversity and the relative ease and speed with which they are developed to replace drugs

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that are controlled, or have become controlled, under the 1971 Act. Chemical structures can simply be modified to create a new substance that is outside any existing drug controls. Many new legal highs are legal only because they have not yet been assessed for the harm that they can do and, thus, for control under the 1971 Act—not because they have been deemed safe to use.

According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 101 new substances were identified in the European Union in 2014, up from 24 in 2009. Deaths related to legal highs have also risen, as the Minister said, up from 26 in 2009 to 60 in 2013 in England and Wales. As the Minister also said, an expert panel was appointed in December 2013 to undertake a review into new psychoactive substances. It reported in September last year and concluded that the current legislative approach in this country, including the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, was unlikely to get ahead of developments in the new psychoactive substances market, bearing in mind how quickly such new substances appear. The panel considered a number of options and came to the recommendation that the Government should legislate to prohibit the distribution of non-controlled new psychoactive substances, focusing on the means and channels of supply rather than on those using such substances.

It is in the light of the panel’s recommendation that the Government have proposed in the Bill that there should be a blanket ban on the production, sale and supply of psychoactive substances in the United Kingdom. The Bill makes it an offence to do so, but it also provides for four civil sanctions to enable police and local authorities to adopt a graded response over these matters in appropriate cases. The Bill does not make possession of such substances an offence. Clearly, with the provision for a graded response, the guidelines given to the police and local authorities on how it should be exercised will be crucial if we are to achieve some sort of consistency, and to address concerns already expressed in the media and elsewhere that items or activities that one would not have thought would be covered by the ban might be caught by it. Will the Minister say whether the Bill also has the support of his department’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and confirm that the Department of Health also agrees with the approach and measures in the Bill?

The Bill defines a psychoactive substance as,

“any substance … capable of producing a psychoactive effect in a person”.

It then provides that,

“a substance produces a psychoactive effect in a person if, by stimulating or depressing the person’s central nervous system, it affects the person’s mental functioning or emotional state”.

Since this is an effect of psychoactive substances, the Government expect that the Bill, with its blanket ban, will overcome the problem of the inevitable time lag between a new substance coming on to the market and completing the lengthy and time-consuming required process—including securing evidence that physical or

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social harm has actually been caused—to ban each new substance identified on an individual or group basis under the 1971 Act.

The Minister’s introduction was restrained, measured and clear about whom the Bill is intended to protect and help. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about some of the documentation that has emanated from government sources. The Government’s summary of the Queen’s Speech dated 27 May 2015 stated that the purpose of the Bill—and one of only two purposes listed—is to,

“protect hard-working citizens from the risks posted by untested, unknown and potential harmful drugs”.

Note that it was not a case of protecting citizens but of protecting “hard-working citizens”. The part of the document in which this reference is to be found has come from the Home Office. Unless the Minister is going to dissociate himself from the wording, perhaps when he responds to the debate he will indicate which citizens the Government do not regard as “hard-working” so that we can all be clear on precisely who is not covered by the Bill in the eyes of the Home Office. Perhaps he could then tell us why the Home Office thinks that the purpose of the Bill is specifically to “protect hard-working citizens” when, as is pointed out in the Explanatory Notes—the Minister has confirmed this today—the Government’s election manifesto commitment was to create a blanket ban,

“protecting young people from exposure to so-called ‘legal highs’”.

Most of us would have hoped that the Bill was designed to protect everyone irrespective of age or some subjective judgment on whether they are or are not “hard-working”.

I would like to raise some points about the provisions of the Bill and my noble friend Lord Tunnicliffe will raise further points later.

The Bill is not dissimilar to legislation passed in the Republic of Ireland—namely its Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010. In the three months following the implementation of that Act, the number of head shops fell from about 100 to just six—as I say, in a period of three months. All Irish-based websites supplying new psychoactive substances also shut down. The Government’s impact assessment for this Bill, in referring to the Republic of Ireland, states:

“No formal evaluation of the impact of the legislation has been undertaken”,

and that prevalence data for 2014-15 will be available in 2015 allowing for,

“a comparison of trends in NPS use since 2010/2011”.

Can the Minister provide us with any information on the impact that the legislation in the Republic of Ireland has had on the usage of new psychoactive substances in that country, since the main purpose of such legislation, and indeed of this Bill in the United Kingdom, must be to reduce the NPS market, and thus the numbers of people who suffer as a result of taking these substances? Is the experience of the impact of the legislation in the Republic of Ireland positive in respect of usage in addition to its impact on head shops and websites? What impact on usage of NPSs do the Government estimate this Bill will have in the United Kingdom? To what extent do the Government consider that the Bill will lead to the market in NPSs going underground, with the potential risks that that

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might involve? What is the experience in the Republic of Ireland in regard to the supply going underground as a result of its 2010 Act?

In respect of websites and online selling, what steps will the Government take to reduce sales of these substances to people in this country, via websites and online, from outside this country? Are discussions taking place with other Governments to address this point? Will the offence under the Bill of importing or exporting such substances fit with existing EU directives?

The Bill provides for listed substances which are capable of producing a psychoactive effect to be exempt from the Bill, either because they are already controlled through existing legislation, such as alcohol, tobacco or medicines, or because their psychoactive effect is negligible, such as caffeine. Is it the Government’s intention that it should be possible to add to this list of substances that are exempt from the Bill? If so, in what circumstances would the Government envisage this might occur, and what process would have to be gone through before this could happen, and on whose advice or recommendation would it happen?

The Bill provides for it to be a statutory aggravating factor when sentencing an offender if the supply or offer to supply took place at, or in the vicinity of, a school. Another area of significant concern is the situation in our prisons. A number of inspection reports have shown high levels of use of synthetic cannabis by inmates and there have been reports of debt, bullying and violence associated with the use of legal drugs, which are not identifiable through mandatory drug-testing. Have the Government also considered making the supply or assisting the supply of NPSs at or in a prison an aggravating factor when sentencing an offender, since many prison inmates are, in reality, highly vulnerable people—albeit they may not come under the Home Office definition of “hard-working citizens”, for whom apparently this Bill is intended?

During the discussions on the Bill we will also want to find out exactly what the Government are doing and intend to do to address the point made by the expert panel in its report that the response to the challenges on legal highs through,

“intervention and treatment, prevention and education, as well as information sharing”,

needs to be enhanced. Currently only 15% of English schools provide teaching about drugs for one hour per term or more. The Minister mentioned the Angelus Foundation, the charity raising awareness of the harms of these substances, which has campaigned, as he said, for provisions like those in the Bill. Its figures show that in school surveys, 13.6% of 14 to 18 year-olds have taken a legal high, and a survey of university freshers showed 19% had tried one.

A recent Parliamentary Question from the shadow Home Office Minister Diana Johnson MP on drugs awareness elicited the information that between 2013 and 2015, only £180,000 was spent on NPS campaigns. The Home Office seems to rely on its Talk to FRANK scheme as the basis of its education commitment. However, the scheme does not reach out to young people through film or social media, and the provision of information does not necessarily equate to greater awareness. The Government have previously stated that 34% of people who visited the scheme website

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were less likely to take legal highs as a result. What they did not mention was that, as I understand it, 22% of visitors to the site were more likely to take a legal high as a result. By inference, the website also had little impact on an even bigger percentage of those visiting the site. If equal attention to that given, rightly, to legislative changes is not paid to the key point raised by the expert panel about prevention, education, intervention, treatment and information, the desired objective of the Bill to address much more effectively the increasing concerns over the spread and impact of legal highs will just not be achieved. Changing the law in isolation will not deliver.

I am sure there will be a lively debate on the Bill, in particular over the extent to which it will achieve its stated objectives. Clearly, the current position is unsatisfactory—indeed, dangerous—and cannot be allowed to continue. Action needs to be taken—action that will improve the situation and provide much better protection to all citizens than is given at present from the risks posed by untested, unknown and potentially harmful drugs. There are too many victims already and whatever views may be held on the Government’s proposed legislation—and I have set out where we stand—those victims should be at the forefront of our thoughts in our discussions on the Bill.

3.53 pm

Lord Paddick (LD): My Lords, I will start by explaining briefly my background. I was a police officer for more than 30 years. I served at every rank up to and including Deputy Assistant Commissioner. On a more personal level, two years ago a former partner of mine, who subsequently became my best friend, died from an accidental overdose of a controlled drug. This is not just a professional interest of mine; it is a very personal one.

I do not want to break up the happy consensus portrayed by the Minister about what the position of the three political parties was. As he quite rightly said, the Liberal Democrat manifesto talked about clamping down on those who produce and sell psychoactive substances—not necessarily, as we will see, banning them.

We on these Benches are as concerned about the harm caused by people misusing drugs as the Government and the Labour Party are. We believe that there should be a health-based approach, aimed at reducing harm caused by drug misuse, rather than a legalistic approach that is likely to further criminalise drug users. Successive Governments have gradually eroded the link between criminal penalties and the harm caused by drugs by ignoring the scientific evidence and the advice that they have been given, to the extent that the drug laws in the UK are no longer considered by many people to have any credibility. The Bill, by failing to differentiate between dangerous psychoactive substances and those that are harmless, and by criminalising the production and supply of these substances but allowing simple possession, adds to that confusion and further undermines the credibility of UK drug laws.

As drafted, the Bill is far too broad and indiscriminate, further undermining credibility and efficacy in reducing harm. Legal minds far greater than mine have speculated

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on whether producing and supplying scented roses, or perfumes that evoke a sense of well-being or romance, could be illegal under the Bill. Those who claim that simply sniffing such substances falls outside the scope of the Bill clearly need to go back to school to learn some simple biology and chemistry. If you sniff something, you are inhaling it; you are taking molecules into your system, exactly as described in the Bill.

As drafted, the Bill would not outlaw simple possession of new psychoactive substances that come on to the market, which could potentially be far more toxic than drugs currently listed as class A under the Misuse of Drugs Act. The Government may well reply—I think that the Minister alluded to this in his opening remarks—that if that is the case, they could be temporarily banned and then designated as controlled drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act. That course is available to the Government now, without the need for the Bill. My understanding was that the whole purpose of the Bill was to get away from manufacturers constantly changing the formula of psychoactive substances to avoid a drug being banned, yet it does not criminalise possession of what are potentially very dangerous drugs, which could quite easily change in formula in the way that the Bill is designed to eradicate. Either the Government want to send a very strong message that these substances are dangerous, which they may or may not be—in which case, why is possession not a criminal offence?—or they want to say, “Well, actually, these drugs are not as dangerous as controlled drugs”, when in fact they may well be.

As the Bill allows possession of new psychoactive substances while possession of drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act is a criminal offence, the police will be faced with situations that make enforcement very difficult, if not impossible. If the police suspect that I have EX-1, a synthetic imitator of real ecstasy—I hasten to add that an internet search taught me that—in my possession for my own use, the Bill does not give the power for the police to stop, search or arrest me because to possess the substance will not be a criminal offence. However, if the police suspect that I have a real ecstasy tablet in my possession, they can stop, search and arrest me because it is a controlled drug. How are the police going to know? Some will say, “They will assume that it is a controlled drug, and search and arrest you anyway”. So what if I tell the officer that I have nothing illegal on me, that the tablet is indeed a legal EX-1, that they have no grounds to search and arrest me and that if they do, I will sue them? What if the tablet turns out to be legal to possess? Where does that leave the police? What if the police officer backs off because of my assurances, but the ecstasy tablet that I have is in fact a real one? The Bill, quite clearly, has not been thought through in terms of its practical application.

At the moment, I can buy legal highs from a head shop on the high street. It is acknowledged in the briefing given by the Government on the Bill that, contrary to what the Minister said in his introduction, many of these head shops are well run, with those that manage them being very keen to comply with the law. At the very least, I can be pretty sure that what I am buying is not a dangerously addictive class A drug.

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If things go badly wrong once I have taken a legal high purchased from one of these head shops, someone can go back to the head shop where I bought it and at least have some idea of what I have taken, and action could be taken to ensure that others are not similarly affected.

Many people buy legal highs now. They like what they do to them, and their use is increasing. If the Bill passes, the only way they can get psychoactive substances and be sure that they are not breaking the law is to go to a local drug dealer. Many of these street dealers have no incentive to ensure the quality of the drugs that they sell, because they could just disappear overnight if things go wrong. The chances of tracing and establishing what drug I had actually been given, were things to go badly wrong, would be much lower.

These drug dealers could just as easily sell me highly addictive class A drugs, and indeed they may have a vested interest in misleading me by giving me a highly addictive class A drug instead of the legal high that I asked for; the high is likely to be greater, and if I get addicted, I could become a regular client. It would make no difference to the dealer, if he were to be caught, whether he was supplying controlled drugs or other psychoactive substances—a long term in prison would await.

We are likely to criminalise many more people as a consequence. If you order psychoactive substances online—we have heard evidence this afternoon about how Irish online sites closed down with the introduction of their legislation—the chances are that the website you are ordering from will be based abroad. Even if you are buying psychoactive substances only for your own personal use, you will be guilty of the criminal offence of importing drugs. If you buy a few tablets to share with your mates on a night out, again you will be guilty of a criminal offence. A lot more people are going to end up with a criminal record as a result of the Bill, even if their primary intention is just to consume the drugs themselves.

The genie is out of the bottle. Many people take legal highs, and they will continue to get hold of them one way or another—whether head shops disappear from the high street or not—or they will simply switch to far more dangerous controlled drugs. The reason that millions of people break the law by taking controlled drugs is that, quite rightly, they see that our drug laws lack credibility. I have never heard a discussion among young people about to go on a night out as to which class a particular drug belongs to, and therefore which drug they are going to take on that basis. The Bill, as currently drafted, as I have said, further undermines the credibility of the drug laws in this country.

We need a new approach: a health-based approach that will genuinely reduce the harm caused by drug misuse and that has credibility among those who misuse drugs, not just an approach that appears to have credibility among politicians who do not really know what they are talking about. We need a system that differentiates between the psychoactive substances that cause most harm and those that are relatively safe—at least as safe as smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol—and we should control and regulate the supply of those relatively safe substances as we do with tobacco and alcohol. To do anything else would lack credibility, particularly in the eyes of young people.

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If someone is caught in possession of harmful psychoactive drugs for their own use, controlled or otherwise, and they are a social user, they should have their drugs seized and be placed on an education programme. If someone is caught in possession of harmful psychoactive drugs, controlled or otherwise, and that person is addicted, they should be placed on a rehabilitation programme. If they refuse to co-operate, they should be given a civil fine. Such an approach would be much simpler and far more effective in dealing with this problem than giving thousands of young people a criminal record that could ruin their life chances because they made stupid mistake.

It is time that we started treating those who misuse drugs as victims of drug dealers rather than as criminals. It is time that we confronted the fact that criminalising young people for possessing substances only as harmful—or less harmful—than alcohol or tobacco lacks credibility.

Lord Tunnicliffe (Lab): For the avoidance of doubt, is the noble Lord saying that the Liberal Democrats so oppose the essence of the Bill that they will either vote against it or propose wrecking amendments?

Lord Paddick: My Lords, we do not propose to wreck the Bill. Clearly, we cannot allow head shops to continue operating as they do now—purporting to sell substances that are harmless when they are far from harmless, or trying to get around the law by saying in very small print on the back of the substances that they are not fit for human consumption. However, the dangers in the Bill as drafted are to make the drug laws even more of a laughing stock than they are currently.

4.06 pm

Baroness Hollins (CB): My Lords, the Bill defines a new psychoactive substance as any substance intended for human consumption,

“capable of producing a psychoactive effect”.

It describes a substance causing a psychoactive effect on a person as,

“if, by stimulating or depressing the person’s central nervous system, it affects the person’s mental functioning or emotional state”.

I speak as someone who has been a psychiatrist for many years, although this is not my field of psychiatry. However, alcohol produces this effect. Antihistamines for hay fever do, too, as do many of the most helpful medications for neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis. In fact, many medical drugs also have a value on the street, being taken by those seeking their psychoactive effects. Will future novel versions of these medicines also be banned before they have been through a definitive clinical trial? Will those trials even be allowed to take place? The Minister said yes they would in his opening words but many researchers have written to express concern that without dramatic revisions to the Bill such research will not take place and people with neurological disorders may be the poorer because of that.

According to the Home Office briefing, there was a doubling of NPS-related deaths in England and Wales between 2009 and 2013, from 26 to 60. However, even

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this low number of deaths is disputed by scientists. I have read statistics that put the number both higher and lower. That may be because of the inclusion of substances that if analysed would be found to contain illegal components, or due to different modes of reporting. Interestingly, the Home Office impact analysis expects to reduce the deaths caused by NPS by only 12 per year. I will return to that later. Although the use of new psychoactive substances is clearly growing, the evidence remains unclear about how many deaths are directly related to NPS. I suggest that that must be better understood before the law is changed, as must the infrastructure required to implement such a change in the law.

Ireland, along with Poland and Romania, tackled NPS through a general prohibition on the distribution of non-controlled NPS. The Irish Republic’s Criminal Justice (Psychoactive Substances) Act 2010 was enacted to target the proliferation of high street retail premises selling NPS. It is aimed at those involved in trading in NPS rather than users. Following the Act, as we have heard, the number of retail shops fell from 102 to virtually zero, which seems a good outcome. The expert panel convened by the Government concluded that the Irish approach,

“best addressed the key elements of the guiding principles that should be in the Act”.

Would Her Majesty's Government not consider that approach instead of seeking to prosecute the users—with, probably, the added effect of filling up Her Majesty’s prisons, which, after all, are already at capacity?

The policy objective is to reduce the harms caused by and associated with NPS while ensuring that the UK’s response to NPS is proportionate. Intended effects are largely to end the legal sale of NPS from high street stores and UK-based websites, to increase public awareness and to reduce harmful effects. In its own analysis, the Home Office expects that approach to save nearly £21 million from around 12 fewer fatalities a year. It is not clear to me how it produced that estimated saving. It is not from health costs, since the impact assessment suggests that around £200,000 per year would be saved to the NHS from fewer NPS-related hospital admissions. This gain appears to be a best estimate cost to the taxpayer of about £100 million. Surely that could not be considered proportionate. This is probably not taking into account new costs for the criminal justice system.

I wonder whether the Bill could have a disproportionate effect on young and/or vulnerable individuals, such as those with mental health problems. As a psychiatrist, I am aware that late adolescence and early adulthood are times when young people take risks in order to learn the safe boundaries of life. For some, this will include the use of NPS. This Bill is unlikely to change the human psychological developmental process; people will find a new way to experiment, or a new vice—and I guess they will always be ahead of government in that.

I welcome the increased focus on the hazards of NPS. I recognise the small but significant risk of adverse effects, including severe toxic reactions or overdose, heart irregularities, organ damage, psychosis and longer-term physical and psychological dependence.

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A report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists last year, called

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, highlighted the issue of health services being ill equipped to deal with the rise in NPS drug use. It is vital that there is an increase in the capacity and range of specialist addiction services to aid those wishing to stop using any of these drugs, particularly those that are addictive. To establish that capacity itself would incur additional costs. Given the rapid rise in the number of people requiring treatment—a 32% increase between 2011 and 2013 alone—could the Minister confirm whether the Government will commit to ensuring that increasing treatment provision is a key part of their strategy to protect UK citizens from the risks posed by psychoactive substances?

I agree with some of the comments made by Professor David Nutt on this subject. He says:

“We know that at least 85% of the population like to use recreational drugs since this proportion drink alcohol”.

He said that the Bill may,

“force individuals who wish to enjoy the recreational effects of”—

what they consider to be safe drugs,

“to use alcohol”.

Professor Nutt suggests that that is a far more dangerous and societally expensive drug. Hazardous alcohol use has health and social consequences that impact on individuals, their families, and the wider community. In 2013 alone there were 20,000 deaths related to alcohol and it remains the leading risk factor for deaths among men and women aged 15 to 49 in the United Kingdom. Public Health England has identified harmful drinking as one if its seven priority areas. Despite widespread media campaigns to educate the public, such as the Drink Aware campaign, few gains have been made in adults. Statistics published just this month show a gradually increasing trend in hospital admissions specifically related to alcohol, with the highest rise being seen in women, and alcohol-related mortality remains stubbornly high at 11.9 per 100,000 in England between 2011 and 2013. Despite this, hazardous drinking remains socially acceptable and culturally defined.

I do not support the progress of this Bill in its current format. I wonder what the mood of the House will be and whether, as I suggest, the Bill should be delayed until there is good evidence that this approach could work, in particular by reviewing the Irish data for an alternative approach. An amended Bill is required, which is more specifically designed to tackle the importation and supply of new harmful psychoactive substances, not the individuals who take them. I ask Her Majesty’s Government also to focus their attention on the considerable harms caused by alcohol and not least to introduce the minimum unit pricing that has been campaigned for by many over the past few years. The BMA and the Royal College of Psychiatrists—I declare an interest as past president of both—believe that a minimum unit price would lead to a decrease in the thousands of alcohol-related deaths. This is not just a health issue but contributes to public disorder, domestic violence and homicide, as well as to suicide.

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In closing, I want to say something more personal. If you appeal to my emotions as the mother of two adult children who were assaulted in separate incidents by assailants who had been using psychoactive substances, I might wish that all psychoactive substances are removed from the market, but from a more pragmatic and, perhaps, intelligent stance, I end with a plea that health-related policy must be evidence-based policy and part of that evidence must be to demonstrate the likely effectiveness of a new policy. I suggest that this Bill does not do that.

4.16 pm

Baroness Browning (Con): My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins. I begin by paying tribute to the work that Norman Baker did at the Home Office in this area. For a very short while, I had responsibility at the Home Office for this policy area, and I can sense the frustration of many Home Office Ministers faced with trying to catch up. That is how it feels—you are running to catch up with something that is for ever disappearing over the horizon: the technology used in the manufacture of these drugs, which stays just a few steps ahead of the law not just in this country but worldwide. As legislators, it is very difficult to know just what to do to feel that you have at least got ahead of it.

This is a very important area. The expert panel whose report Mr Baker accepted,

“indicated that ‘after years of stable and declining drug use, the emergence of NPS has been a “game changer’””.

That is just how it feels: a game changer. What can we do? The panel considered the existing legislative response, including the use of the temporary class drug orders that I took through this House—it seems only yesterday but it was quite some time ago—inadequate to keep up with the challenge before us.

I hate the term “legal highs”. I always hated it. It is dangerous. The composition of these drugs is many and varied. A high percentage of them contain substances that have already been criminalised, or that could be dangerous if consumed by humans or even animals. Many contain pharmaceutical drugs, which normally a doctor would prescribe, that have been obtained illegally on the black market. They are marketed in attractive packaging under attractive names, but even then there is no guarantee that if you buy a particular product one week, what is in it will be in it again the following week.

And in some of those packages will be killers. We have talked about numbers today—we always come down to statistics—but, as many other Home Office Ministers have done, I have spoken to parents who have lost children and young people through legal highs and, whether the figure is 50, 60 or 100, one is too many. I understand that the latest figures up to 2013—perhaps the Minister will correct me if I have got this wrong—were 60 in England and Wales and another 60 in Scotland, where the figures are aggregated separately. These figures are going up all the time, as is the use of these drugs. The problem is not just deaths, though of course they are the worst thing. We know from surveys done in Scotland that the use of these drugs can lead to psychotic states and unpredictable

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behaviours, attendance at A&E—I hope the Minister can reassure Members of the House who have raised this issue, but I understand that since the Irish system was put in place they have noticed a reduction in A&E attendances—sudden increase in body temperature and heart rate, coma, risk to internal organs, confusion leading to aggression and violence and intense comedowns that can cause users to feel suicidal. As the Minister in the Commons, the right honourable Mike Penning, has said, this is Russian roulette.

This is what we are trying to deal with in this legislation. I hear from my noble friend Baroness Hollins, sat on my right, and from others around the House, concerns about some of the detail, but unless we can collectively agree to take this forward we will be left with a game of Russian roulette out on our streets, in the clubs and in the many social areas where many young people gather—the problem affects not just young people but it affects them in particular—and there is nothing worse for sullying a life chance than to take one of these drugs and get the wrong one.

I thought a very good point was made about how police officers are going to know whether or not the substance they are looking at is a legal high. I hope that as the Bill progresses, the Minister will reassure the House that this issue can be addressed in a way that gives the police the power to do the job they have to do without having to be involved in a lot of bureaucracy, and ensures that they know they are confident in what they are dealing with. We have to find solutions to these problems because, if we do not, we will have moved no further forward while all the time the technology and the wicked people out there are beating us all to it.

On a lighter note, I would like to make an aside. The noble Lord, Lord Howarth, and I have known each other for many years, although to my certain knowledge he has never given me any flowers. The noble Lord, Lord Paddick, also raised the question, which was quite new to me, of someone giving you a bouquet of flowers and their aroma somehow sending you into—I do not know what. I have received many flowers in my lifetime and have always taken a rather Constance Spry approach to them, worrying about how to arrange them, but they have never made me swoon. I say to the Minister, though, that I hope the Bill is not going to include chocolate. I am being facetious about a serious subject, although I have to say to noble Lords around the Chamber—and I am afraid it is mainly the gentlemen—that if they think to make a woman swoon they should give her a bunch of flowers, they are all on the wrong track. Men have tried for centuries to find out what will make women swoon and are still nowhere near finding out.

I agree with what has been said today about the need to address drug and alcohol abuse. We still do not put enough resources into dealing with this, and we do not reach the ultimate conclusion that I feel is the way forward. Following their treatment, we often just leave people at that point, but they need to be moved on from treatment to recovery. That takes much longer and requires a lot more resources, and it sometimes requires various innovative approaches.

I say to my noble friend that although I realise that the substance of the Bill is ultimately not about that, we are talking about drugs—substances that are potentially

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addictive. I hope that the Government will not forget that when people become addicted—whether to these sorts of substances or others—there are solutions; but it is about having the will to press on and push people to the point where a difference is made to their lives.

Other matters have been raised, such as the medical research implications. I have to say that I have not read in the paperwork available to the House that medical research will be impaired, but I hope that as the Bill progresses my noble friend will be able to reassure us on that. None of us wants the Bill to be so broad that it impairs genuine, legitimate medical research, but because of the nature of these psychoactive drugs, it has to be broad. Once you start narrowing it down, you lose momentum in dealing with the problem. I hope that my noble friend will reassure the House on that as we go through.

I welcome the Bill. It may not be perfect but it deals with a very difficult problem, and I wish it Godspeed in its passage through this House. I am sure that my noble friend will steer it through with the judgment and wisdom he has shown during the passage of previous legislation.

4.26 pm

Lord Patel of Bradford (Lab): My Lords, I heed the warnings from the noble Baroness, Lady Browning, about chocolates and flowers, but given that this is a Home Office Bill and given the Home Secretary’s liking for shoes—although it has nothing to do with the legislation—shoes might be one way forward.

I am very interested in the Bill, having worked for a considerable number of years in the field of substance misuse and having been a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. I certainly agree with many of the points that noble Lords have already raised, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, and the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins. I agree with the Government that the continuing development and use of so-called new psychoactive substances, or NPSs, as they are now known, is a matter for serious concern.

I welcome the Government’s interest in trying to prevent these substances causing harm, particularly if we are to prevent deaths amongst young people who are otherwise law-abiding citizens, and who perhaps understandably are attracted to new experiences at a time in their lives when exploration and risk-taking are normal. I also appreciate the Government’s desire to control and minimise the harms caused by the production and importation of these harmful new substances from “producer” countries such as China, which appear to be the source of many of the “psychoactive powders” that are currently found in the UK. Similarly, I understand the wish to control the supply of potentially harmful substances from so-called head shops and professional drug dealers in the UK.

Having said all that, I have a number of concerns about the Bill in its current form: that it may not only fail to achieve those aims but result in greater harms. For any avoidance of doubt, I do not say that lightly, or simply to make a political point, but rather to assist in making sure that this legislation is workable and that it gets through. I have been looking at the scientific

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evidence that is currently available, and I believe that there are some serious fault lines within the Bill as drafted. I will be looking for assurance from the Minister with respect to how the Government are addressing the scientific evidence, particularly the advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and other concerned bodies, so that we can ensure that no serious unintended consequences happen as a result of the Bill.

Notwithstanding what the Minister said about the expert panel, I understand that the Home Office did not consult with the ACMD on the drafting of the Bill. Given the advisory council’s obvious expertise and statutory standing with respect to the Misuse of Drugs Act, can the Minister say why that was the case? Have views been sought from other government departments? Again, I come back to what the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, said about health: this has to be health related. Have we taken advice from the Department of Health? What are its views, and what is the view of Public Health England on the implementation of this Bill? Can the Minister also say why there has not been much wider consultation on this legislation, given that it is such a complex area with a wide range of potential impacts on a variety of stakeholders? That point was also raised by two fairly influential agencies, Transform and Release.

One of the biggest issues that I have to question is the rather different procedural approach in the Bill, whereby the precautionary principle is being employed—that is, this legislation attempts to ban everything on the basis that it is better to be safe than sorry. That may sound sensible to some but it flies in the face of our long-standing approach to drug laws in this country, which is based on the principle of reducing harm where it is known to exist, and that, I would argue, is much more focused and less ambiguous. However, I will leave the legal arguments of procedure to other noble Lords who are more qualified than I am, while I briefly outline some of the areas where I seek assurances.

First, as I understand it, one of the principal drivers of this legislation is to halt the proliferation of head shops, which are viewed as a main source of supply for many NPSs in the UK. As noble Lords are aware, and as has already been mentioned, a similar ban on NPSs with this aim was introduced in Ireland five years ago. However, my understanding is that the Irish experience has shown a rise in use as a result of the ban on head shops because the market has been driven underground. We know that use of NPSs among Irish youths has increased since the 2010 ban—with reported lifetime use going from 16% in 2011 to 22% in 2014—with reports of a shift to the street and online markets. What can the Minister add to that latest evidence? My noble friend Lord Rosser raised that issue, as have others. Do we have up-to-date evidence of Ireland’s experience in this area?

This kind of blanket ban can not only result in an increase in NPS use but lead to the transfer to more dangerous substances, as those seeking them elsewhere move into the arms of drug dealers, where they may be exposed to the sale of illegal drugs such as heroin. Some noble Lords have said that if people cannot go to a head shop and the substance is not legal then they

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will not go elsewhere, but they will. My experience of working with many, many young people with drug problems is that they will go elsewhere to seek a substance and that they will be driven into the arms of drug dealers.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction has warned that a blanket ban will push NPSs into a “grey marketplace”. By that, it means parts of the internet that cannot be controlled or policed—the so-called dark net. So a country-specific ban on NPSs will most likely fail to have a great impact on new substances and may well expose people to other, unknown harms. Can the Minister assure me that the Bill will have a real impact on the supply chain and on those making money through the nefarious activities of creating and distributing harmful substances for money and not simply push a new generation into a more dangerous environment where the sales of these and other drugs thrive?

I also have some concerns about the scope of the Bill. As it stands, the Bill covers all psychoactive substances. This position goes much further than the recommendation in the report of the expert panel on NPSs that substances which are not harmful or which have minimal harm are not drawn into the Bill. I realise of course that the Government propose a list of exemptions in the Bill for things such as food supplements, controlled drugs and so on, but I have considerable reservations about whether this will be effective. Again, I seek reassurance from the Minister on this point.

Not all psychoactive substances are harmful and indeed some, such as those used in eastern medicines for centuries, may be beneficial. Many homeopathic and herbal remedies and some products taken to aid well-being could be psychoactive yet are not on limited approved lists. Examples are Ginkgo biloba, which can be bought off the internet, and products containing guarana, a mild stimulant contained in many drinks, including some produced by world-leading companies.

The problem is that the Bill makes no distinction between very dangerous substances and those of little or no harm. In effect, this could mean that the principle that the seriousness of the punishment should relate to the seriousness of the offence may be significantly altered, and not in a beneficial way.

I am very aware that experts do not yet agree on the best way to define what is psychoactive. This could make implementation of the Bill very difficult and potentially open to legal challenge. Perhaps most worryingly, the Bill as drafted could create a situation where we are criminalising and damaging the lives of otherwise law-abiding young people. For example, the Bill could create a situation where many young adults would face severe importation and supply offences if they bought an NPS on the internet, perhaps even unaware that they are being shipped from abroad. My understanding is that, if they shared them with their friends, the weight of the law as written in the Bill could be quite disproportionate to the offence. Can the Minister reassure us that a proportionate response will be taken?

If I might, I will just digress for a second. This is undoubtedly a very important area of drug policy and legislation and we are right to spend parliamentary

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time on it, but I would strongly argue that the significant harms associated with the abuse of and addiction to prescribed medication deserves as much time, if not more, to be debated and addressed. Recently, I discussed with the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, and others the idea of reconstituting an all-party group on prescribed medications. I will not steal the noble Earl’s thunder, as I know that he will speak about this in his contribution, but suffice to say that many will be aware of the very serious concerns that have been voiced on the issue of prescribed medication. This concern was most recently raised at the Maudsley debate, where it was suggested that prescribed medications may be the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. That has to be viewed in the context of deaths from legal NPSs.

In addition to tranquilisers, other types of psychoactive medication can lead to dependence, including anti-depressants, stimulants, anti-psychotics and painkillers. Withdrawal from these drugs can result in severe long-term symptoms and, in some cases, long-term or even permanent neurological injury. There were over 57 million prescriptions for anti-depressants in England alone in 2014, a rise of over 7% since 2013 and over 500% since 1992. In total, around 80 million prescriptions for psychiatric drugs were issued in 2014, often for mild and moderate conditions where other non drug-related interventions may have been more appropriate. This increase in prescription rates has led to a significant rise in demand for the services of withdrawal support charities, which have only about 5% coverage. I am not saying that many people do not benefit from these drugs, but too many are prescribed long term without support, guidance and advice, and let me tell you that the resultant harm is, in my experience, extreme. It is certainly an area that we need to look at very carefully.

Finally, my noble friend Lord Rosser spoke about NPSs being an issue in prisons. If my memory serves me, a report last year on pain management in prisons gave a snapshot study of two relatively small prisons with a population of around 1,600 people. In one month, they were prescribed 350,000 analgesic tablets, and that does not include paracetamol, Nurofen, pregabalin or tramadol. Prescribed drugs are a major issue.

I will be following this debate and the passage of the Bill with interest. I strongly suspect that I will not be alone in calling for the Bill to be improved so that it is evidence based, proportionate in its aims and can achieve what it was intended to achieve—that is, to control the importation and supply of new harmful psychoactive substances by professional drug suppliers and dealers, who are set to make large amounts of money from this trade.

4.38 pm

Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope (LD): My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Patel of Bradford, whose experience is of service to the House. I hope that he will take an active interest in the remaining proceedings of this Bill. I concur particularly with his point about the alleged lack of consultation. If that is true—I hope the Minister will find time to reassure us about this—it is seriously worrying. The advisory committee on medicine and drugs has been a well-established, much-respected part of the environment since 1971. If there is any suggestion that they were

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