Prisons (Substance Testing) Bill

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 16th April 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Con) [V]]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, who certainly knows a great deal about this area. I thank my noble friend Lady Pidding for introducing this legislation into our House and Richard Holden for the work that he has done in the House of Commons.

I hope that the House will indulge me if I say a few words about my right honourable and much-missed friend Dame Cheryl Gillan. Cheryl was a good friend as well as a close colleague, particularly when she was shadow Secretary of State for Wales and later Secretary of State and I was leader of the Welsh Conservatives in what is now the Welsh Parliament. We often agreed; we usually agreed, but I can remember on one occasion having a furious row with Cheryl over some footling issue—I cannot even remember what it was now—and I had been dreading meeting up for the supper that the two of us were due to have that evening. I need not have worried. I walked into the restaurant and Cheryl came over to me and gave me a big hug—in the days when we could still hug—and said to me, “I think you’re wrong, but we’ll do it your way. Now, let’s have the evening and not discuss politics.” It was typical of Cheryl. She was always fun to work with, a real people person, dedicated, hard-working and disarming. I miss her a lot. This Bill, I hope, will be a fitting tribute to Cheryl Gillan’s work and character.

It is clear that drug testing in prison has been a challenging issue because the chemical composition of psychoactive substances is subject to such rapid change. This has meant that new psychoactive substances are often created with minor alterations to the chemical make-up of the previous substance, but, with each alteration of the substance, there has to be an amendment to the law to provide for it. This is time-consuming and causes delay. A further issue is that not all prescription and pharmacy medicines are included in the list of drugs that a prison can test for. Furthermore, there is currently no legislative basis for prevalence testing, an anonymised process to help identify any new substances being found routinely. The Bill, very sensibly, therefore corrects all those problems with the existing law.

The Prison and Probation Service has indicated and provided evidence to show that psychoactive substances in prison have become a significant problem. This measure is much needed. I am proud to lend strong support to it, and pleased that it seems to be reflected across the House, and I very much hope that this will become law before prorogation. Once more, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Pidding, for championing this measure in your Lordships’ House, and I strongly support it.