(Cover) - EN Showbiz - Amy Winehouse's father Mitch has spoken about his plans to help those who were "less fortunate" than she was.

The former taxi driver is planning to open a drug rehabilitation centre in honour of the late singer, who passed away on July 23 at the age of 27.

The cause of Amy's death will not be known until toxicology test results come back, although she had famously battled with alcohol and drugs for a long period.

As he today went to London's Houses of Parliament to meet with a minister about support for the scheme, Mitch expressed his motivation for the centre.

"This is going to be a brainstorming session with the government," he is quoted as saying in Britain's The Daily Mirror.

"I think there is a new emphasis and thinking within the government to try and get treatment in at the sharp end rather than money being wasted through the criminal justice system.

"There was one rehab centre for juveniles, Middlegate, which has just shut down because of a lack of funding.

"We were in the fortunate position of being able to fund Amy to go into private rehab, but this is about people who can't afford it."

Mitch was accompanied by Amy's managers Raye Cosbert and Trenton Harrison-Lewis, and former cocaine user and addiction expert Sarah Graham. Sarah hopes that Amy's death will encourage addicts to seek help.

"We didn't know it [Amy Winehouse's death] was going to happen but we hope it will show people that addiction is something that can kill people when they are very young and that we should not wait until it is too late," she explained.

Amy spent a week in a rehabilitation centre earlier this year, and during his eulogy at her funeral Mitch explained she hadn't drunk alcohol for three weeks before her death. It has even been suggested the singer's abstinence caused her passing.

"Abstinence gave her body such a fright they thought it was eventually the cause of her death," a source claimed last week to British newspaper The Sun. (C) Cover Media