Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the number of drug-related deaths in prisons in Wales.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to drugs in all our prisons.

We have an ambitious 10-year Drug Strategy, which sets out our cross-government plan to address illegal drug use. It is underpinned by a record level of additional investment, as part of which the Ministry of Justice is rolling out a range of interventions, including in prisons in Wales, to get offenders off drugs and into recovery. These include:

• Recruiting Drug Strategy Leads in key prisons, to coordinate a whole system approach to tackling drugs.
• Increasing the number of prisons with an Incentivised Substance-Free Living unit from 25 in summer 2022 to 80 now.

Alongside the physical deterrents, prisons in Wales have a drug and alcohol intervention service which aims to address the causes of drug and alcohol-related usage and reduce the risk of harm. This is achieved through various means including opiate replacement treatments, psychosocial groups, and counselling.

Following the most recent deaths, HMPPS in Wales has taken further steps, including:

• Issuing to prisoners leaflets and information from Public Health partners on the increased dangers of current strains of synthetic opioids.
• Further control measures on prisoners suspected of moving drugs within the prison.
• Reviewing recent overdoses that did not cause deaths, as well as trends in the issuing of Naloxone.