It is important that they all recognise the importance of the points that were made. Data is essential for monitoring policies and states have already pledged in last year’s political declaration that they will monitor policies.

For example, shorter and simpler questions could be perceived as easier for many member states. However, there may be a necessity for different questions to understand a particular situation. Australia has found it useful at times to mix data and that a variety of sources have been crucial to Australia’s understanding of the drug problem. To not pursue efforts to do this internationally will limit policy and programme effectiveness.

On the issue of how to manage more or less questions, it’s important to remember that using data for important policy and programme decision-making creates an incentive for everyone to provide data.