Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of prisoners returned to jail having broken their licence conditions and subsequently been found to be carrying concealed drugs.

Prisoners recalled to custody having breached the conditions of their licence will be arrested by the police and then taken to the nearest local prison for the area in which they were arrested.

Once returned to a local prison, prisoners will be searched and risk assessed in line with the prisons’ local policy for stopping contraband. Prisons deploy a comprehensive range of robust searching and security measures to detect items of contraband, both at the point of entry to the prison and concealed within the prison. We will continue to explore new methods of preventing drugs coming into prisons

Prisoners found with drugs on entry to prison are sanctioned, potentially including days added to their sentence, or, in cases where the quantity of drug or packaging suggests possession with intent to supply, will be referred to the police. All visitors or staff caught with drugs are referred to the police.