Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Home Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Jeff Smith Excerpts
Monday 22nd February 2016

(8 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Mike Penning Portrait Mike Penning
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I wrote my previous answer earlier, because I did not know what was going to be asked. The truth is that if all victims know exactly what is going on once they have reported a crime, they will have confidence in the criminal justice system. TrackMyCrime will help in that regard.

Jeff Smith Portrait Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)
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12. What progress her Department has made on reviewing the status of poppers within the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016.

Karen Bradley Portrait The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)
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The evidence-gathering stage of the review has begun. The Government are considering the next steps to ensure that the health and relationship benefits of poppers, and their risks, are fully assessed in an open and transparent manner.

Jeff Smith Portrait Jeff Smith
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Eighteen thousand police officers have been cut in the past five years. Is it really sensible to waste scarce police resources on enforcing a ban on poppers and unnecessarily criminalising users of a relatively harmless substance, particularly when the ban may be revoked in a few months?