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Drugs tsar falls victim to Whitehall criticism
Guardian, The
Wednesday 13 Jun 2001 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,506059,00.html Drugs tsar falls victim to Whitehall criticism Alan Travis, home affairs editor Keith Hellawell, the highest paid adviser in Whitehall, is to lose his job as the full time drugs tsar, the Home Office confirmed last night. Mr Hellawell, who is paid £106,000 a year and has been criticised in Whitehall as ineffective, had his three year contract suspended last Friday. He agreed yesterday that he would step down this summer and take on a much reduced role, based in the Home Office, of "tackling international drug trafficking on a part time basis". Tony Blair created the job of drugs tsar to lead a drive against drug abuse after the 1997 general election. Mr Hellawell, aged 59, is the former chief constable of West Yorkshire and the first holder of a job which was modelled on the powerful US drugs tsar. Unlike his American counterpart, Mr Hellawell had no budget of his own and soon found himself the victim of a Whitehall whispering campaign. He caused controversy when he suggested that the Cabinet should face random drug tests and only managed to get his contract renewed for a further three years last August after a personal appeal to Mr Blair. The prime minister has now announced that the new home secretary, David Blunkett, will take over Mr Hellawell's role of coordinating national policy on drugs. The decision was made yesterday that Mr Hellawell will give up the drugs tsar job on the publication of his last annual report this summer. Earlier, during a visit to a south London estate which has succeeded in driving out crack cocaine dealers, Mr Blunkett said: "I have not had an opportunity to discuss with him what role he might play in the future. I want to look at that as part of what we do in the whole area of drugs policy. I have got to talk to him and mark out what the best way forward will be." Mr Hellawell's deputy, Mike Trace, who has increasingly been working on the drugs problem at a European level, has been regarded as a success - but the drugs tsar's own record of achievement has been brought into question. Mr Blair's decision to move the Whitehall coordination of anti-drugs policy from the Cabinet Office to the Home Office means that Mr Hellawell's unit is already being brought under Mr Blunkett's direction. Mr Hellawell found his efforts widely derided in Whitehall as ineffective. Although the 10-year plan to tackle drug abuse had targets to cut consumption of heroin, cocaine and other drugs, no baseline figures were published, which made it impossible to judge if the targets were being met. He also failed to resolve tensions between the law enforcement priorities of the Home Office and the education and harm reduction objectives of the Department of Health. He also clashed with the Cabinet Office minister, Mo Mowlam, over her view that cannabis was not a "gateway drug". He travelled widely in the job, including trips to America, Russia and Iran. The first signs that Mr Hellawell was to be sidelined came in April when Gordon Brown, the chancellor, and the then home secretary, Jack Straw, launched an anti-drugs initiative with Manchester United manager Sir Alec Ferguson and footballer Andrew Cole. Mr Hellawell was not present.
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