Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what facilities and resources her Department has to assess the chemical content of suspected new psychoactive substances that are identified in the UK.

The Government introduced the Psychoactive Substances Bill in the House of Lords on 28 May. This provides for a blanket ban on the production, distribution, sale and supply of new psychoactive substances (NPS), to protect young people from exposure to these new drugs. The Home Office Forensic Early Warning System (FEWS) was set up in January 2011 to bolster national capacity to identify NPS available in the UK. It brings together expertise from forensic laboratories and chemical standard suppliers, UK-wide law enforcement agencies and experts in the field. The system continues to develop a co-ordinated UK-wide approach to laboratory testing and analysis of law enforcement seizures and test purchasing to identify these substances. The number of NPS not previously encountered either in the UK or at EU level, identified by FEWS from January 2011 until March 2014, is not recorded on a monthly basis. The annual figures are set out in the answer to your question of 26 February (PQ 225633). Analysis for 2014/15 will be published in due course. Twenty-two new substances identified under the system up to March 2014 are controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, of which one is currently controlled under a temporary class drug order. FEWS continues to enable us to effectively assess the availability of NPS and take appropriate action.