Asked by: Stephen Crabb (Conservative - Preseli Pembrokeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle the illegal entry of (a) drugs and (b) communication devices into prisons by prison staff.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
HM Prison & Probation Service has a zero-tolerance policy of smuggling of contraband into prisons, such as drugs and mobile phones, including by staff. The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated.
We are determined to recruit the right people into our frontline positions, which is why they are subject to personnel security vetting which includes criminal record checks during the application process. Before taking up post, new recruits receive specific training to support them and ensure their resilience to corruption.
The £100 million Security Investment Programme (SIP) funded Enhanced Gate Security in 42 high risk sites, meaning we have counter-measures in place to detect and disrupt any staff attempting to smuggle contraband into prisons. The routine searching of staff, use of drug sniffer dogs and metal detectors acts as a deterrent against conveyance. SIP also funded mobile phone blocking and detection capabilities and drug detection units.
Appropriate action is taken towards the minority of staff who engage in corrupt activity. Whenever staff are suspected of wrongdoing, HMPPS’ Counter-Corruption Unit pursues disciplinary action or criminal convictions, working closely with the police.
We have recruited over 100 new staff into HMPPS’ Counter-Corruption Unit, which proactively detects, disrupts, and deters activities of those suspected of wrongdoing and supports prisons and probation services with specialist staff working alongside the police to support their investigations. Regional Prevent teams are dedicated to building staff resilience to corruption through training, awareness-raising and individual support.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisons have a drug recovery wing.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
As part of the ambitious cross-Government Drug Strategy, we are rolling out a wide range of interventions to support prisoners off drugs and into recovery. This includes testing a new approach to help prisoners with an opiate dependency achieve abstinence, with seven abstinence-focused Drug Recovery Wings in operation across the estate. Alongside this, we are increasing the number of Incentivised Substance-Free Living (ISFL) units, where prisoners commit to remaining free of illicit drugs with regular drug testing and incentives. We now have 68 ISFLs in operation (55% of prisons), and aim to reach up to 100 ISFLs by March 2025.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the pilot scheme to test wastewater for illegal drug use in prisons launched by his Department in 2021.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
We are committed to identifying and tackling drug misuse in prisons, including through a range of drug testing approaches. In 2021, we undertook a small-scale proof of concept study at 13 prisons to understand wastewaters utility in detecting the presence or absence of illicit substances. Following successful detection in the pilot, we are continuing to test wastewater-based surveillance and its potential in assessing the prevalence of illicit substances in prisons. The evidence base around wastewater-based surveillance is continually developing and so we are working with leading academics and embedding quality assurance into our methods.
Prisons continue to have a zero-tolerance culture, and any prisoner suspected of taking illicit substances can still be subjected to a mandatory drug test. As part of the ambitious cross-Government Drug Strategy, we are rolling out a range of interventions to support prisoners off drugs and into recovery, such as doubling the number of Incentivised Substance-Free Living wings and supporting prisoners to engage with community treatment pre-release.
We are also committed to tackling the supply of drugs into prison. Our £100m Security Investment Programme completed in March 2022 and delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners, resulting in full coverage across the closed male estate. We have also installed 84 X-ray baggage scanners 49 sites, building on the rollout of our body scanners, drug trace detection machines and metal detection archways.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2024 to Question 7583 on Prisons: Drugs, how many random mandatory drug tests carried out between 2018 and 2023 were positive.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Between April 2018 and March 2023, there were 25,323 positive rMDT tests for both traditional drugs and psychoactive substances. Data for April to December 2023 will be published as part of the 2023-24 Annual Digest.
No new Official Statistics on rMDT positivity have been published since the year to March 2020, because since the start of the COVID pandemic testing levels and the number of prisons with sufficient testing have been too low to provide robust data.
The range of drugs tested in the rMDT panel is subject to change in response to new emerging drug types and new patterns of drug use. This is necessary to ensure our testing approach is targeting the right substances. These limitations mean no robust rate of positive tests can be calculated from the above data and this number of positive tests should not be compared to the number of tests.
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.
This does not include tests that were spoilt or lost in transit on the way to the laboratory.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many drug recovery programmes were delivered in prisons in (a) 2010, (b) 2018 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Drug treatment in prisons is commissioned by NHS England, and data from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System is held by the Department of Health and Social Care. Published data on drug treatment in secure settings, including numbers in treatment, is available dating back to 2015. This can be found at:
As part of the ambitious cross-Government Drug Strategy, the Ministry of Justice is rolling out a range of interventions to support prisoners off drugs and into recovery. This includes increasing the number of Incentivised Substance-Free Living wings from 25 in summer 2022 to 68 now, and testing a new approach to help prisoners with an opiate dependency achieve abstinence, with the opening of 7 abstinence-based Drug Recovery Wings. We are also recruiting dedicated staff in prisons to focus on tackling drugs, and supporting prisoners to engage with community treatment pre-release.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking in the (a) prison service and (b) secure hospital service to reduce harm from synthetic drugs.
Answered by Maria Caulfield
We are actively monitoring, and responding to, the continued threat posed by the growing levels of potent synthetic opioids in the United Kingdom. NHS England is working with the Department, the Ministry of Justice, and HM Prison and Probation Service to establish an effective early warning system in prisons to share information and intelligence on the prevalence of synthetic opioids.
NHS England is also establishing a Task and Finish group for their Clinical Reference Group (CRG), working to adapt the current framework for healthcare staff management of people suspected of having internally secreted drugs. The updated framework for healthcare staff will help enhance responses to suspected or potential drug poisonings, including those related to synthetic opioids. To enhance our first aid response in prisons, feedback is also being sought from the CRG in relation to the administration of naloxone under circumstances where a drug poisoning may be related to stronger synthetic opioids.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 26 June 2023 to Question 190334, whether he has made an estimate of the number of (a) prison officers and (b) other prison staff who have been (i) investigated, (ii) arrested and (iii) charged in relation to the supply of drugs in prisons in each of the last six months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. A minority of staff engage in corrupt activity.
HM Prison & Probation Service has a zero-tolerance policy to drugs conveyed into prisons and take appropriate action to a small number of prison staff who break the rules. Our £100m Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones, is ongoing. This includes increased resource to pursue corruption, as well as established a new ‘Prevent’ function, aimed at building staff resilience against corruption.
Below is a table showing the breakdown of staff investigated from July 23 to Dec 2023 relating to the conveyance of drugs.
Table 1
Month | Cases where Officer Investigated | Cases where Non-Officer Investigated |
TOTAL | 104 | 42 |
Jul | 20 | 8 |
Aug | 19 | 7 |
Sep | 18 | 7 |
Oct | 19 | 7 |
Nov | 23 | 7 |
Dec | 5 | 6 |
Below is a table showing the breakdown of staff arrested from 2019 to Dec 2023 to date relating to the conveyance of drugs.
Table 2
Month | Cases where Officer Arrested | Cases where Non-Officer Arrested |
TOTAL | 12 | 7 |
Jul | 3 | 1 |
Aug | 1 | 1 |
Sep | 2 | 3 |
Oct | 3 | 1 |
Nov | 1 | - |
Dec | 2 | 1 |
Below is a table showing the breakdown of staff charged from 2019 to Dec 2023 to date relating to the conveyance of drugs.
Table 3
Month | Cases where Officer Charged* | Cases where Non-Officer Charged* |
TOTAL | 1 | 2 |
Jul | - | - |
Aug | - | - |
Sep | - | 1 |
Oct | 1 | - |
Nov | - | - |
Dec | - | 1 |
Source: Linkspace Case Management System.
Notes:
Linkspace is the Counter Corruption Unit’s (CCU) Case Management System used to record and track cases linked to corruption.
Data provided by the Counter Corruption (CCU) have the following Caveats applied below;
1) The new Counter Corruption Unit came into being in April 2019, with a new structure and a change to ways of working. During the initial transition period, and prior to the introduction of the new Case Management System, it is possible that not all arrests were being captured.
2) Prior to April 2019, corruption in HMPPS was managed by the Corruption Prevention Unit
(CPU). The CPU was a largely centralised unit focused on sanitising and disseminating all
corruption related intelligence to the Police, with an individual Regional Corruption
Prevention Manager (RCPM) in each geographical region offering advice and support to
prisons in managing corruption, Hence data prior to April 2019 is not available.
3) Data includes Non-Directly Employed Staff (public or private) as they provide a service on behalf of HMPPS.
4) Officers ‘charged*’ is not an assured metric, the data below is likely very underrepresented given it is substantially lower than our CJS outcomes i.e., CJS sentences, court fines, conditional discharges etc over this period.
5) The Investigations data is all operations opened on linkspace that relate to conveyance of drugs, for officers and non-officers. Some investigations are based off limited intelligence and many are unproven.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 32 of his Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, what his planned timetable is for when random mandatory drug testing will return to the levels required to estimate national drug use in prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
All random mandatory drug testing (rMDT) in prisons were paused in March 2020 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Low levels of testing resumed from September 2020 in line with the National Framework for managing COVID-19. rMDT levels have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels due to operational and staffing pressures in prisons. We will keep performance under close review.
Prisons continue to have a zero-tolerance culture, and any prisoner suspected of taking illicit substances can still be subjected to a mandatory drug test. As part of the ambitious cross-Government Drug Strategy, we are rolling out a range of interventions to support prisoners off drugs and into recovery, such as doubling the number of Incentivised Substance-Free Living wings, and supporting prisoners to engage with community treatment pre-release.
We are also committed to tackling the supply of drugs into prison and our £100m Security Investment Programme delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners, resulting in full coverage across the closed male estate. 84 X-ray baggage scanners have also been installed at 45 prisons and 4 learning centres, building on the rollout of our body scanners, drug trace detection machines and metal detection archways.
Mentions:
1: Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab - Life peer) Prison staff are being targeted to smuggle drugs into our prisons. - Speech Link
2: Lord Bellamy (Con - Life peer) drugs are in the community—and they are in the local community in various areas around a number of prisons—that - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Stephen Crabb (Con - Preseli Pembrokeshire) A current prisoner at Parc recently wrote to the Welsh Affairs Committee:“Drugs are everywhere in prison - Speech Link
2: Ruth Cadbury (Lab - Brentford and Isleworth) Drugs are fuelling the violence that we see in our prisons. - Speech Link
3: Edward Argar (Con - Charnwood) We are also supporting the Welsh emerging drugs and identification of novel substances project through - Speech Link
4: Jessica Morden (Lab - Newport East) Some parents, including that constituent, have raised concerns over a long period about drugs. - Speech Link
5: Edward Argar (Con - Charnwood) Across England and Wales, prisons come under my jurisdiction as Prisons Minister. - Speech Link