Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle (a) violence, (b) drug use, (c) use of drones and (d) use of mobile phones in prison.

The level of violence in our prisons is too high. Illicit trade in items such as mobile phones and drugs – facilitated by supply routes such as drones – is a significant driver of the increase in assaults on staff and other prisoners.

We are fully committed to addressing the increase in violence and assaults by increasing staffing levels and improving prisoner-staff relationships. We are making swift progress in strengthening the frontline, with 20,003 individual prison officers in post at the end of August – an increase of 1,290 since October 2016. Alongside this, we are moving to a new key worker model which will mean every residential prison officer supporting a caseload of around 6 prisoners. This will mean prisoners have a consistent, named officer to challenge and support them away from violence and reoffending. We have invested in 5,600 body-worn cameras across the prison estate, rolled out alongside training in staff interaction with prisoners, to support better relationships and give high-quality evidence to support prosecutions where assaults do take place.

We are likewise determined to tackle the illegal flow of drugs and mobile phones into our prisons. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has established national and regional intelligence units, which are working with law enforcement partners to develop intelligence on offenders who are involved in the illicit economy, so that we can carry out operations to find and disrupt criminal activity in prisons. We are building on this by investing £3 million to create an HMPPS Serious Organised Crime Unit, which will work closely with the Home Office and police forces to further disrupt organised crime in prisons.

We are the first jurisdiction in the world to develop tests for psychoactive substances in prisons, and are using these and over 300 trained sniffer dogs in order to detect those using and supplying them. Anyone found with contraband will be subject to disciplinary action and police investigation. We have invested £2 million to equip every prison in England and Wales with technology to strengthen searching and security, including portable detection poles which can be deployed at fixed points such as reception, and extra portable signal detectors to use on the wings to support searches. We are working with mobile network operators to deliver ground-breaking technology, which will stop mobiles smuggled into prisons from working.

We are also bearing down on the supply routes through which illicit items enter prisons. To date, there have been over 40 arrests and 15 convictions of criminals involved in drone activity – resulting in those convicted being sentenced to a total of more than 40 years in jail. In April 2017 we set up a specialist team of prison and police officers to improve our efforts to intercept and capture drones and bring the criminals involved to justice. We are working closely with government partners on the UK’s response to the drone threat and the development of counter drone technology. This is keeping us at the forefront of the work being progressed nationally and internationally to stop criminal use of drones.