Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners in England and Wales were prosecuted for possession of a weapon while in prison in (a) 2014, (b) 2015, c) 2016 and (d) 2017 to date.

The Serious Crime Act 2015 introduced an offence of unauthorised possession in prison of a knife or offensive weapon. Data on proceedings in 2015 and 2016 is available on the gov.uk website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/614435/experimental-statistics-by-ho-offence-code.zip

Data on proceedings in 2017 is not yet available.