Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of disciplinary action taken against prisoners found to be using illegal substances.

Drugs pose a significant challenge in prisons, with nearly half of prisoners having an identified drug need. It is therefore crucial we have a multi-pronged approach to tackling drugs, combining security focused activity with treatment and recovery initiatives so that individuals can break the cycle of reoffending and turn their lives around.

The scale of the issue is clear, and data on drug finds in prisons has remained consistently high in recent years. We also conduct random mandatory drug testing in prisons to support our understanding of performance in establishments, although volumes are not currently consistently high enough to enable robust, publishable national data on the percentage of positive test results.

The number of incidents where drugs were found in prisons, by gender of establishment, between April 2019 to March 2024 were[1]:

The number of drug find incidents at HMP Styal can also be found in the statistics published in the HMPPS Annual Digest: 08_Finds_drug_type_data_tool.ods. It should also be noted that both “illegal drug incidents” and “drug incidents” are being interpreted as drug find incidents for this request and therefore the figures do not represent all drug-related incidents. There are other drug related incidents that can occur within prison.

To curb the supply of drugs, a range of security measures have been implemented, including tackling the use of illicit mobile phones which are the single biggest enabler of drug conveyance. These security measures include X-ray body scanners, airport-style Enhanced Gate Security (EGS), X-ray baggage scanners, detection dogs, and specialist equipment to alert staff to the potential presence of drugs on various items and materials.

Reducing supply is only part of the solution; we also need to reduce the demand for drugs. To drive down demand and support recovery, there are 85 prisons with Incentivised Substance Free Living Units. These provide a dedicated, supportive environment for any prisoner who wants to live drug-free in prison. To bring together this rehabilitative and security focused approach to tackling drug use, 54 Drug Strategy Leads in key prisons are working to ensure that local drug strategies are effectively implemented.

We also conduct targeted drug testing in custody to help keep people safe, and identify individuals who may benefit from a referral for a treatment referral, or inform disciplinary action. Governors and Independent Adjudicators (IA) have a range of options available to them to effectively manage drug taking behaviour, including awarding added days to the time spent in custody (IA only). Rehabilitative activities can also be mandated by governors as a condition of a punishment. Those prisoners who fail to comply with the rehabilitative activity will have their suspended punishment activated. The Government keeps the effectiveness of this process under review.

[1] HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2023 to March 2024 - GOV.UK

Notes:

The figures for drug incidents have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing returns but the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although shown to the last case, the figures may not be accurate to that level:

(1) Figures include incidents at HMPPS operated Immigration Removal Centres and within the youth estate.

(2) It is important to consider with incidents of finds in prisons that an increase in numbers may be as a result of more items being found, as opposed to more items being present. However, any increase in finds is not necessarily attributable to any one particular security counter-measure.

(3) The sum of drug find incidents in Male and Female establishments do not equal the total number incidents as there are drug finds from other locations. This includes escort areas and Medway secure training centre, which are included in the total number of drug find incidents.

(4) There was a change in the way finds were recorded in March 2022. The reason for the change was to make it easier for prisons to record incidents where multiple items were found within one incident. Each find incident now enables the prisons to select single or multiple types of find initially. For incidents with only a single type of find, the prisons select the type of find from a drop down list, and can now input this information much quicker. For incidents with multiple types of find, it should still be easier for prisons to input this information, so may result in small increases in some of the individual finds categories.

(5) The inclusion of new categories and changes to some of the existing categories mean that finds incidents prior to March 2022 are not directly comparable with later figures, so caution needs to be taken when interpreting changes over the years.