I welcome your to your first sitting in the Chair following our evidence-taking sessions, Mr. O’Hara.

I am grateful to the hon. Members for Cambridge and for Enfield, Southgate for the amendments that they have tabled. I am also grateful to the hon. Member for Kettering for raising the issue of substance misuse and, in particular, solvent misuse.

I will declare an interest as I am currently vice-president of the charity Re-Solv, which deals with solvent and volatile substance abuse. In fact, my last proper job before entering the House of Commons was as a director of Re-Solv for three years until 1992. I therefore have an understanding of the impact of solvent and volatile substance misuse, particularly on young people. As has been mentioned, there is a number of substances that are normal, everyday household items that young people can and do misuse, which give a temporary kick, but which can lead to instant death or long-term problems. I am particularly pleased to have the opportunity to examine the substance misuse amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Cambridge in conjunction with the alcohol misuse amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Enfield, Southgate.

On Second Reading, my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington, North (Helen Jones) intervened on my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Justice to raise the lack of an alcohol order within the youth rehabilitation order. My right hon. Friend agreed to look at the issue with me during proceedings on the Bill. I say to all three hon. Gentlemen that their amendments are valuable. I am keen to look at them in great detail, and I hope to produce an amendment at a later stage that meets their objectives. I obviously need to reflect on matters carefully to make sure that our definition will do the job that those who have spoken want to be done. My right hon. Friend and I are keen to make progress.

I noted that, when giving oral evidence, the Youth Justice Board and the Children’s Society felt strongly that there should be a treatment requirement to cover substance misuse. I have undertaken to look at that in detail, and I am ready to widen our consideration so that we examine all substance misuse. If we get the definition right, a provision on substance misuse could cover alcohol misuse as well as solvent and volatile substance misuse. I shall certainly be considering whether such a requirement is deliverable and, if so, how we can ensure that it is appropriate to young people.

To be fair to the hon. Member for Cambridge, I need to examine whether his helpful definition of substance misuse is appropriate for the Bill. I want to consider whether it covers substances other than drugs and alcohol, and how we can define substance misuse to ensure that we catch some of the volatile substances that are subject to abuse, and whether we can have a definition that covers the concerns that have been expressed today.

I want to examine whether the drug treatment requirement under the Bill will or will not be subsumed by the suggestions of a substance misuse treatment order, because we could consider tabling an amendment that covers a generic substance misuse order and which would cover drug, alcohol and volatile substance misuse treatment. I understand where the hon. Members for Cambridge and for Enfield, Southgate are coming from, and I have great sympathy with their aims, given both my professional background before I came to the House and my ministerial background.

We need to discuss the matter with the Youth Justice Board, the Department of Health and others who will be responsible for examining some of the needs in respect of the order. I am keen to do that and I hope that I have signalled to members of the Committee that I am minded to table an amendment of the same nature as those proposed. I am happy to discuss matters outside the Committee with hon. Members before I do so.

I cannot accept an amendment today because our discussions and negotiations have not been finalised. We need to look at the downstream consequences of the actual phraseology used in the Bill. In principle, however, I agree to examine such matters in great detail and in due course to table an appropriate amendment that I hope will be agreed by the hon. Members for Cambridge, for Enfield, Southgate and supported by the hon. Member for Kettering. I hope that, on that basis, the amendment will be withdrawn.