Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many drug-related deaths there have been in prisons in each year since 2010.
The system for classifying deaths used in the published statistics on deaths in custody provides a provisional classification for administrative and statistical purposes and does not distinguish those that are drug-related. All deaths in prison custody are subject to a coroner’s inquest. It is the responsibility of the coroner to determine the cause of death and the final classification is only determined at inquest.