Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of drug-related deaths across the secure estate.

Every death in custody is a tragedy, and we continue to do all we can to keep people safe in prison. We are committed to ensuring all those who need drug treatment in prison have access to a full range of treatment options, including abstinence-based interventions, to support a meaningful recovery and thereby reduce drug related deaths.

As part of the Cross-Government Drug Strategy, the MoJ is investing up to £120m to tackle drugs and support offenders into treatment. This includes working with NHS England to supply life-saving naloxone medication to staff in prisons, to administer to those who have suffered an opiate overdose.

We are also investing in prison security to prevent drugs entering prisons in the first place, recruiting Drug Strategy Leads in all male category C and women's prisons to coordinate a whole system approach to tackling drugs, and rolling out abstinence-based Drug Recovery Wings to help opiate users recover from their substance misuse.