Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers were charged under the (a) Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and (b) Prisons Act 1952 for smuggling drugs into prison in each year since 2018.

The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. A minority of staff engage in corrupt activity which is often as a result of conditioning and manipulation by prisoners.

HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has a zero-tolerance policy on corruption and takes appropriate action to the small number of staff and prisoners who break the rules. Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons including reducing the number of staff being manipulated and conditioned by prisoners, is ongoing. This includes increased resource to pursue corruption, as well as established a new ‘Prevent’ function, aimed at building staff resilience against corruption.

a) The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is not a charge associated to offences pursed by the Counter Corruption Unit, which tackles the corruption linked to HMPPS staff and prisoners.

b) The Counter Corruption Unit dataset is specific to charges within the act, notably conveyance. To provide the requested data it would be a disproportionate cost to check individual records to provide an answer to this question.