Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to tackle drug use in prisons.

The government is determined to tackle the problem of drugs in prisons in England and Wales by addressing both supply and demand.

We have introduced new legislation to criminalise supply and possession of psychoactive substances in prison. We have developed and introduced new tests for specified psychoactive substances into all prisons, and have trained 300 dogs to detect such substances.

We are working with healthcare partners to provide effective drug treatment programmes and on communications to make sure that prisoners are aware of the dangers of taking psychoactive substances and visitors of the consequences of attempting to bring them in.

We will shortly set out further details of our plans to make prisons places of safety and reform in a white paper.