Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of repeat offenders have access to specialist (a) mental health and (b) substance misuse treatment while in custody.

People in prison are entitled to the same standard and range of health and social care services as they would receive in the community. All prisoners, regardless of whether or not they are repeat offenders, should have access to integrated mental health services. This includes access to a range of treatments and interventions within prison.

We are committed to ensuring that all offenders can access high-quality treatment that enables them to recover from their problems with drug or alcohol use as quickly as possible. We will continue to ensure that the full range of evidence-based treatment interventions is available to address the wide range of drug needs presented by people in secure and community settings, including abstinence-based interventions to support recovery from drug dependency.