Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 17
17
Accepted
Make DHSC and Home Office jointly responsible for drug policy with a cross-departmental minister.
Recommendation
In line with the spirit of the partnership approach in the 10-Year Drugs Strategy, we recommend that the Government make the Department of Health and Social Care and the Home Office jointly responsible for drug policy. We recommend that the Combating Drugs portfolio be held by a minister that sits across both departments. There is already precedent of Home Office ministers sitting across other departments such as the Ministry of Justice. The Home Office and law enforcement authorities would continue to respond to the illicit production and supply of drugs. (Paragraph 65) 74 Drugs
Government response summary AI-generated
The government states that the Combating Drugs Minister's portfolio already spans six government departments, which goes further than the recommendation for joint responsibility between only the Department of Health and Social Care and the Home Office.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted
The Combating Drugs Minister and his portfolio go further than this recommendation, sitting across six government departments. In 2021, the Government established the first sponsor minister for combating illicit drug use for 25 years. Appointed by the Prime Minister, the role is currently held by Chris Philp MP, Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire in the Home Office. The Combating Drugs Minister has overarching accountability for delivery of the ambitions and outcomes in the strategy, while each of the six contributing departments – the Department of Health and Social Care, the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Department for Education, and their Secretaries of State – continue to be accountable for delivery of their elements of the Strategy, including holding their local partners to account. The Joint Combating Drugs Unit, the first of its kind, sits across all six of the above departments to oversee and support delivery of the outcomes in the strategy and reports into the Combating Drugs Minister. The six Drug Strategy departments oversee delivery, alongside experts and delivery leads, at the Drug Strategy Ministerial Forum. The forum has been effective in galvanising action-focused plans and tracking progress since it was established at the beginning of 2023.
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