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Written Question
Prisons: Drugs
Tuesday 25th February 2020

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce rates of substance dependency in the prison population.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

NHS England/Improvement (NHSE/I) are responsible for commissioning and delivering healthcare, including substance misuse services, in prisons. The Ministry of Justice works closely with our health and justice partners (Department for Health and Social Care, NHSE/I, HM Prison and Probation Service and Public Health England) to deliver safe, decent, effective healthcare for offenders through the National Partnership Agreement for Prison Healthcare in England, published in April 2018.

Last year we published The National Prison Drug Strategy which has three strands: restricting supply, reducing demand and ensuring prisoners are encouraged to engage in meaningful activity and treatment interventions to reduce drug misuse and dependency.

We are also testing and evaluating innovative approaches to substance misuse through our £9 million Drug Recovery Prison pilot at HMP Holme House. This is a joint MoJ and NHS E/I project to tackle drugs in prison and help prisoners improve their chance of recovery.


Written Question
Prisoners' Release: Drugs
Tuesday 16th April 2019

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to improve support for prisoners with drug dependency when they are released from prison.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

We are developing a Community Sentence Treatment Requirement ‘protocol’ to ensure improved access to mental health and substance misuse services for offenders who need them. It focuses on reducing reoffending by addressing the health needs of offenders that may be contributing to their offending behaviour.

Our prisons also seek to reduce reoffending through rehabilitation and overcoming substance misuse problems is a key enabler of this. To support this, on 3rd April we published a national Prison Drugs Strategy which includes guidance to restrict supply, reduce demand and build recovery as well as examples of best practice to support prisoners with substance misuse issues.

Our duty of care and responsibility doesn’t stop when a prisoner leaves prison. We are working with health partners to increase support for offenders leaving prison and are investing an additional £22m per annum over the remaining life of the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) contracts to ensure that CRCs deliver an enhanced Through The Gate service to offenders leaving prison. In their Long Term Plan, NHS England have proposed introducing a ‘RECONNECT’ service to improve continuity of care from custody. The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS are working in close partnership with NHS England to implement this plan.


Written Question
Reoffenders: Drugs
Tuesday 16th April 2019

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to reduce re-offending rates among people with drug dependency.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

We are developing a Community Sentence Treatment Requirement ‘protocol’ to ensure improved access to mental health and substance misuse services for offenders who need them. It focuses on reducing reoffending by addressing the health needs of offenders that may be contributing to their offending behaviour.

Our prisons also seek to reduce reoffending through rehabilitation and overcoming substance misuse problems is a key enabler of this. To support this, on 3rd April we published a national Prison Drugs Strategy which includes guidance to restrict supply, reduce demand and build recovery as well as examples of best practice to support prisoners with substance misuse issues.

Our duty of care and responsibility doesn’t stop when a prisoner leaves prison. We are working with health partners to increase support for offenders leaving prison and are investing an additional £22m per annum over the remaining life of the Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) contracts to ensure that CRCs deliver an enhanced Through The Gate service to offenders leaving prison. In their Long Term Plan, NHS England have proposed introducing a ‘RECONNECT’ service to improve continuity of care from custody. The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS are working in close partnership with NHS England to implement this plan.


Written Question
Prisons: Drugs
Thursday 1st November 2018

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce substance misuse and dependence in prisons; and if will he make a statement.

Answered by Rory Stewart

We have formed a Drugs Taskforce working with law enforcement and health partners across government to coordinate our activities and ensure a holistic approach to tackling substance misuse in prisons. The Taskforce is developing a national Prison Drug Strategy, for publication this autumn, underpinned by advice and guidance that will support the whole of the estate to restrict supply, reduce demand and build recovery.

Our Drugs Taskforce is also working specifically with 10 of the most challenging prisons to understand their situation, and will invest £6 million to tackle drug supply in these establishments. We will enhance physical security and invest in more staff focused on effective searching, drug-detection dogs, body scanners, and improved perimeter defences. We will monitor and assess the progress made in these ten prisons to inform our approach and best practice across the estate.

We are adopting pioneering approaches, such as our ‘Drug Recovery Prison’ pilot at HMP Holme House, which is leading the way in tackling the supply of drugs and helping prisoners to lead a drug-free life. Security has been bolstered by new body scanners and extra detection dogs while specialist healthcare workers and interventions have been introduced to support recovering users. We have also established a specialist Financial Crime Unit, to identify and freeze bank accounts linked to organised crime behind bars, tackling the criminal kingpins who fuel drug dealing and violence.


Written Question
Magistrates
Tuesday 31st January 2017

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans her Department has to increase social diversity among magistrates.

Answered by Oliver Heald

This Government is committed to improving social mobility and extending opportunity so that everyone has the chance to realise their full potential.

We want to build a legal system which draws from all talents and represents the great vitality and diversity of modern Britain.

Magistrates are statistically the most diverse group within the judiciary. More than half of all magistrates are women and 10% are from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.

I recognise, however, that more needs to be done to improve diversity including social diversity. As stated in the Government’s response to the Justice Committee’s report into the role of the magistracy, the time is right to carefully consider our approach to recruitment of magistrates, with a particular focus on the Lord Chancellor’s stated aim to increase judicial diversity, so that the magistracy better reflects the society it serves.


Written Question
Magistrates
Friday 13th January 2017

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data her Department holds on the socio-economic background of magistrates.

Answered by Oliver Heald

We do not hold information on the socio-economic background of magistrates.


Written Question
Solicitors: Voluntary Work
Tuesday 2nd February 2016

Asked by: Dan Poulter (Conservative - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with the Attorney General on increasing the number of solicitors participating in pro bono activities.

Answered by Shailesh Vara

The UK has an unrivalled concentration of expert and talented legal practitioners who are dedicated to the delivery of pro bono services. The SoS has been clear that those who benefit financially from our legal culture must do much more to help protect access to justice for all. The MoJ has had constructive discussions with the legal sector about how we can best achieve this and we look forward to continuing that dialogue. The subject has been discussed at official level with the Attorney General’s Office and the legal professions.