Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his timetable is for the Drug Recovery Prison pilot at HMP Holme House to (a) conclude and (b) report its findings.

The Drug Recovery Prison (DRP) at HMP Holme House is jointly run and funded by the MoJ/HMPPS and NHS England/Improvement (the body responsible for overseeing NHS trusts and independent healthcare providers). The DRP aims to create a whole prison approach to tackle the supply of drugs into prison, together with creating an environment where prisoners have access to the full range of health services that meet individual needs and are given support to lead a drug free life while they are in custody and also following their release into the community.

The DRP pilot began in April 2017 and ended in March 2020. The DRP was mentioned in part one of Dame Carol Black’s Review of Drugs as an example of good practice. MoJ/HMPPS and NHSE have though continued to fund the work of the DRP as part of business as usual funding.

The pilot will be subject to three evaluations. A process evaluation is currently being finalised and will be published in Autumn 2021. Following this, economic and impact evaluations of pilot will be conducted and will be published in 2023/24 (the lag in the impact and economic evaluations is due to the delay in the 1-year reoffending statistics becoming available). Findings from the evaluations of the pilot will help to inform future health and justice interventions across the prison estate.