Prisons: Drugs

(asked on 6th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will set a target for the reduction of drugs in prisons during the lifetime of the 2019 Parliament.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 11th January 2021

Stopping drugs getting into and circulating in prisons is a key priority. Whilst we will not be introducing a specific target, we are taking decisive action to improve our ability to disrupt this type of criminality by putting in place security counter-measures that would allow us to seize more items than ever before.

In August 2019, we announced £100 million investment to boost prison security and restrict supply with a focus on technology to detect and disrupt drugs and mobile phones from entering prisons. This is supported by enhancements to intelligence and counter corruption capabilities.

This investment supports our National Prison Drugs Strategy published in April 2019. The Strategy has three strands to tackle drugs in prisons: (1) restricting the supply; (2) reducing demand; and (3) building recovery from drugs and substance misuse. We are working with law enforcement and health partners across government to implement this and improvements to our drug testing framework are a key component of this strategy.

The Drug Recovery Prison (DRP) at Holme House, is a £9 million project which is jointly funded by the Department for Health and Social Care and MoJ. It provides an innovative, whole system approach to tackling substance misuse. The pilot aims to reduce the supply and demand for illicit substances in prisons, whilst supporting recovery. Findings from the evaluations of the pilot will help to identify successful initiatives that will be shared across the prison estate.

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