Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Ministry of Justice

Oral Answers to Questions

Philip Hollobone Excerpts
Tuesday 25th April 2017

(7 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sam Gyimah Portrait Mr Gyimah
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The hon. Lady makes an important point. Spice is a blight on our communities as well as in our prisons, where it fuels the disorder and violence that we see there. We take this extremely seriously and I am working with my colleagues in the Home Office to deal with the issue not only in the custodial system but in the community.

Philip Hollobone Portrait Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
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Banning psychoactive substances is one thing, but physically keeping them out of our prisons is quite another. Will the Minister tell the House what active measures he is taking to prevent these substances from getting inside our jails?

Sam Gyimah Portrait Mr Gyimah
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My hon. Friend is right. We are determined to keep these drugs out of our jails, and that is why we have trained 300 dogs to detect them. We have also introduced a new drug test for psychoactive substances, and the UK is the first jurisdiction in the world to do that. The testing has been rolled out, although we cannot comment on its impact because it started only last year. However, we know from the evidence that drug testing has a deterrent effect on use and possession.

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Elizabeth Truss Portrait Elizabeth Truss
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I agree with the hon. Gentleman that this issue is concerning and I am very happy to look at it.

Philip Hollobone Portrait Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
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How many foreign nationals do we have in our prisons, and what steps are being taken to send them back to prison in their own country, at the expense of their own Governments?

Sam Gyimah Portrait Mr Gyimah
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We are taking active steps to ensure that every foreign national who should be deported from our prisons is deported. Since 2010, 33,000 foreign nationals have been deported from our prisons. In 2016-17, a record 5,810 were deported, and I am sure that that progress will continue.