Alan Howarth spoke at the University of East Anglia on ‘Drugs – Prohibition or Harm Reduction?’ during the Autumn Semester of 2013-4.
Alan Howarth was a Member of Parliament from 1983 to 2005, first for Stratford-on-Avon and then for Newport East. In 1995 he left the Conservative party to join Labour. He is now a member of the House of Lords.
He served as a Minister in Conservative and Labour Governments, as Minister for Schools, then Higher Education and Science, and later as Minister for Employment, Equal Opportunities and Disabled People before becoming Minister for the Arts. He also served on the Social Security Select Committee and the Intelligence and Security Committee.
He has chaired All Party Parliamentary Groups on Charities and the Voluntary Sector and on Architecture and Planning. He is currently an officer of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform.
He has been a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company, a Trustee of the Poetry Archive, a Board Member of the Institute of Historical Research, a Trustee of the Employment Policy Institute and a Patron of the Neurological Alliance. He chaired the UK Literary Heritage Working Group. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Vice-President of the Victorian Society and a Trustee of the Norwich Heritage and Economic Regeneration Trust.
He lives in Norwich.
Download the Alan Howarth Speech here.
