Protection of Prison Staff

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

My noble friend is right that the best way to de-escalate a problem in a prison is by jail craft—understanding the complexities and knowing your prisoners. If we look at the tools available to prison officers, we see that the best one is their mouth, but we also need to look at what we can do to protect our staff, because they need protecting in some of our establishments where they are dealing with complex and dangerous prisoners.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords, one of the main causes of violence in prisons is the ready availability of illegal drugs. The Minister’s boss, the Secretary of State, stated the other day that it was her intention to try to rid our prisons of drugs by the end of this Parliament. Is that a realistic pledge?

[Lord Timpson (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that drugs are a massive problem in our prisons. Some 49% of people arriving in prison tell us they are addicted to drugs, and then we put them in a prison with serious organised criminals who make a lot of money out of selling drugs to them, so clearly we have a problem. However, I am interested not just in tackling drugs getting into prisons—how we tackle drones and illegal contraband coming in—but in how people can leave prison not addicted, so that when they leave prison they do not go back.