Dear Colleague,
PUBLICATION OF ‘FROM HARM TO HOPE: A TEN-YEAR STRATEGY TO CUT DRUG CRIME AND SAVE LIVES’
The Government has today published a new long-term drugs strategy, ‘Hope Over Harm’. The strategy resets the UK Government’s position on, and response to, illegal drugs, setting out a bold and world-leading approach developed by the whole of government. I am grateful to all of my Cabinet colleagues for their commitment and ambition in bringing about this collective endeavour.
The strategy is underpinned by a record single investment of nearly £900 million of dedicated funding over the upcoming Spending Review period, taking the total investment in combating drugs to £3 billion over three years across enforcement, treatment, recovery and demand reduction.
The strategy makes clear our position that all illegal drugs harm society. It is also the formal, substantive response to Dame Carol Black’s Independent Review of Drugs (Parts One and Two) and accepts all the review’s key recommendations. And it goes further, setting out an ambition to reduce drug use across the population towards a historic 30-year low within a decade.
Dame Carol’s review laid bare the scale of the challenge. Drugs drive almost half of all homicides and acquisitive crime, with the total cost to society estimated to be nearly £20 billion a year in England alone. The growth of the county lines distribution model has increased violence on our streets and caused unacceptable criminal exploitation of young people and vulnerable adults. The capacity and quality of the treatment system has declined, and half of all people with an addiction to opiates or crack cocaine, including those currently within the criminal justice system, are not engaged in treatment. Alongside this, the level of overall drug use is extremely concerning, with over three million adults reporting drug use in the last year in England and Wales and one in three 15-year-olds reporting drug use in 2018.
The strategy sets out three core strategic priorities:
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An end-to-end plan to attack all stages of the supply chain and break the county lines distribution model to get drugs out of our neighbourhoods. We will step up our response to the supply of most harmful drugs, focusing first on Class A drugs, reducing the violence and exploitation that accompanies drug supply, and protecting prisons from being drug fuelled academies of crime;
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A rebuild of the capacity and quality of the treatment system to get more people, including offenders into treatment and supported to meaningful recovery. We will deliver a world- leading system to significantly reduce drug harms, crime and ultimately save lives
3. A generational shift in the demand for drugs. We will do this by building a strong evidence base to support new policy and by taking action now to deter drug use and prevent children, particularly the most vulnerable, from beginning to take drugs. A White Paper next year will consult on a framework of escalating sanctions to achieve the behavioural change we seek.
The interventions and investment set out in the strategy will be accompanied by a renewed cross- government focus on delivery and strong partnership working locally. To ensure greatest impact at a local level we will begin by targeting our investment at the places with the greatest need, as well as by improving local co-ordination. Following consultation, in spring 2022 we will also develop a system of national and local outcomes frameworks and accountability to improve consistency, set clear expectations for the next decade, and ensure measurement of success against the ambitions of the strategy.
As Sponsor Minister for this cross-government effort I will oversee delivery across the responsible departments and report annually to Parliament on progress. The Crime and Justice Task Force, chaired by the Prime Minister, oversees this collective Government priority, with the relevant Secretaries of State accountable for delivering of their specific elements within their departments’ remits. This will be done with a relentless focus on reducing harm across society.
The commitments in the Strategy only cover matters reserved to UK Government, recognising that the devolved administrations have their own strategies covering devolved issues. However, the Strategy reaffirms our commitment to building a UK-wide approach so that we further embed collaboration, share practice and collectively develop the evidence base on drugs issues.
Over the course of the 10-year strategy, this Government will reverse the rising trend in drug use. This will support the Government’s levelling up mission with people living longer, healthier lives, in safe and productive neighbourhoods. And more specifically, by 2024, we expect this whole of government mission to:
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prevent nearly 1,000 deaths, reversing the upward trend in drugs deaths for the first time in a decade;
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deliver 54,500 new high-quality treatment places, a 20% increase and ensuring a treatment place for every offender with an addiction. This will contribute to the prevention of three quarters of a million crimes;
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close over 2,000 more county lines through our relentless and robust action to break the model and bring down the gangs running these illegal lines; and
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secure a 20% uplift in disruptions against the activities of organised criminals, including arresting influential members, targeting their finances and dismantling supply chains.
I am enclosing a copy of the strategy with this letter for your information and placing a copy in the libraries of both Houses.
