asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list, by year since 1973, the total number of occasions a constable has used the power under section 34 of the Criminal Justice Act 1972 and taken a person to a detoxification centre.

The first experimental detoxification centre in England and Wales was set tip in 1976. The number of admissions to detoxification centres from that year is published annually in "Offences of drunkenness, England and Wales"(table 1 of the volume for 1978, Cmnd. 7707).