Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much was spent by the probation service on drug treatment programs in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.

Drug treatment in the community in England is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), via local authorities, not by the Ministry of Justice. As part of our ambitious cross-Government Drug Strategy, DHSC has invested an additional £532m over three years in increasing substance misuse treatment in England. This includes recruiting dedicated criminal justice focused staff who work across police, custody, courts and probation.

Commissioning of treatment for offenders is different in Wales, and is a partnership between Police and Crime Commissioners, local Area Planning Boards and HM Prison and Probation Service. HMPPS has contributed £9.7m to this joint commissioning over the past three years, supporting the recruitment of criminal justice focused staff and dedicated staff with lived experience.

The Ministry of Justice is committed to supporting offenders to engage with treatment to tackle the addictions that drive their crime. To do this, we have recruited Health and Justice Partnership Coordinators nationwide to build stronger links between probation and treatment providers, increased our capability to drug test offenders with a Drug Rehabilitation Requirement as part of a community sentence, and procured 650 additional laptops to enable prison leavers to attend initial appointments with community treatment pre-release.