More girl truants than boys use drugs

Girls who skip school are more likely to use recreational drugs than boy truants because they find it easier to get access to illegal substances, a Home Office study reveals.

The survey of 5,000 youngsters showed almost two thirds of girls aged 12-16, who played truant or were excluded from school, admitted to drug use, compared with fewer than half of truanting boys.

These girls may be encouraged to use drugs by older boyfriends, the report suggests.

It says the Home Office should do more work to "discover how far girls under 16 are at risk of progressing to problematic use of the more harmful drugs".

The study comes as the Government tries to combat a virtual epidemic of truancy. More than a million pupils dodge school every year and a further 100,000 are excluded. And while the Home Office report shows how truants risk slipping into drug misuse, other research shows the link between truancy and crime.

In London, where muggings occur at a record rate of 218 a day, it is estimated that 70 per cent of all crime is committed by under-17s. When police targeted truants in Newham, car crime fell by 70 per cent, street crime was cut by 17 per cent and burglaries 39 per cent.