Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how his Department plans to assess the impact of the Synthetic Opioid Taskforce on the (a) supply and (b) demand for these drugs.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling Class A drugs, including synthetic opioids, is a priority for the Government due to the harm caused to users, society and the economy.
The HMG Synthetic Opioids Taskforce is working with partner agencies such as the National Crime Agency (NCA), the Department for Health and Social Care and the National Police Chiefs Council to deliver an evidence-based response to the level of risk posed by synthetic opioids, and implement policies to stem the demand and supply of these dangerous substances.
As of 20 March, 15 dangerous synthetic opioids have come under the tightest controls as Class A drugs. An impact assessment has been published which outlines the potential impacts of the legislation, and which includes a qualitative assessment of the potential use and spread of these substances.. By controlling these substances, we anticipate an increase in public awareness of their harms and that law enforcement are able to respond to the supply and production of these drugs.
To stem the supply of illicit synthetic opioids to and within the UK, the NCA, Police and Border Force are working together in a zero-tolerance approach, ensuring all lines of enquiry are prioritised and vigorously pursued. This involves mapping and targeting key offenders, including dark net markets. Dedicated teams use a range of tools and techniques generally unavailable to most investigators and we make sure they have the resources and powers they need to keep our country safe.
Border Force are leading on a series of intensifications at the border to strengthen our intelligence on how these substances reach the UK. Furthermore, Home Office supports the NCA’s International Liaison Officer network and Border Force’s international work through funding posts in key transit and source countries to stop drugs from coming to the UK in the first place.
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, whether she has made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of the levels of security in community pharmacies to ensure (a) staff and (b) public safety.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data related to crime, including assault and theft, in community pharmacies is not held by the Department but could be obtained from individual police departments through Freedom of Information requests. These are matters for the police and criminal justice system. Community pharmacy staff are considered emergency workers under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 which provides for increased sentencing powers.
Community pharmacies are private businesses that are commissioned to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services and are legally responsible for the health and safety of their staff.
Pharmacies are by law required to keep controlled drugs, those most likely to be abused or that pose a risk of diversion from a legal supply route, in a locked safe, cabinet or room which is constructed to prevent unauthorised access to the drugs.
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, whether she has made an estimate of the amount of medication that has been stolen from community pharmacies in the last year.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data related to crime, including assault and theft, in community pharmacies is not held by the Department but could be obtained from individual police departments through Freedom of Information requests. These are matters for the police and criminal justice system. Community pharmacy staff are considered emergency workers under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 which provides for increased sentencing powers.
Community pharmacies are private businesses that are commissioned to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services and are legally responsible for the health and safety of their staff.
Pharmacies are by law required to keep controlled drugs, those most likely to be abused or that pose a risk of diversion from a legal supply route, in a locked safe, cabinet or room which is constructed to prevent unauthorised access to the drugs.
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, whether she has taken recent steps to ensure that there is increased security for medicines within community pharmacies.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data related to crime, including assault and theft, in community pharmacies is not held by the Department but could be obtained from individual police departments through Freedom of Information requests. These are matters for the police and criminal justice system. Community pharmacy staff are considered emergency workers under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 which provides for increased sentencing powers.
Community pharmacies are private businesses that are commissioned to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services and are legally responsible for the health and safety of their staff.
Pharmacies are by law required to keep controlled drugs, those most likely to be abused or that pose a risk of diversion from a legal supply route, in a locked safe, cabinet or room which is constructed to prevent unauthorised access to the drugs.
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, how many incidences of assault have been committed against community pharmacy staff in the last year.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data related to crime, including assault and theft, in community pharmacies is not held by the Department but could be obtained from individual police departments through Freedom of Information requests. These are matters for the police and criminal justice system. Community pharmacy staff are considered emergency workers under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 which provides for increased sentencing powers.
Community pharmacies are private businesses that are commissioned to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services and are legally responsible for the health and safety of their staff.
Pharmacies are by law required to keep controlled drugs, those most likely to be abused or that pose a risk of diversion from a legal supply route, in a locked safe, cabinet or room which is constructed to prevent unauthorised access to the drugs.
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 her Department is taking to monitor the safety of community pharmacies.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data related to crime, including assault and theft, in community pharmacies is not held by the Department but could be obtained from individual police departments through Freedom of Information requests. These are matters for the police and criminal justice system. Community pharmacy staff are considered emergency workers under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 which provides for increased sentencing powers.
Community pharmacies are private businesses that are commissioned to provide National Health Service pharmaceutical services and are legally responsible for the health and safety of their staff.
Pharmacies are by law required to keep controlled drugs, those most likely to be abused or that pose a risk of diversion from a legal supply route, in a locked safe, cabinet or room which is constructed to prevent unauthorised access to the drugs.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will hold discussions with the Irish Government on tackling the supply of illegal drugs entering the UK via the sea.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
In December 2021, the Government launched its ten-year drugs strategy, From Harm to Hope, to cut crime and save lives. As part of this, £300 million has been allocated to fund activity to break drug supply chains from end-to-end, this includes targeting upstream flow and securing the UK border to restrict drugs entering the UK via sea, land, and air.
The UK Government and its law enforcement partners are leveraging our extensive international networks to maximise cooperation with other governments to tackle drug trafficking upstream.
Border Force works with law enforcement organisations, including the Police Service Northern Ireland, other UK Police services, An Garda Síochána in the Republic of Ireland and the National Crime Agency, to target those who might attempt to smuggle illicit drugs between the Republic of Ireland and the UK, including via the sea.
Our continued work with partners, including the NCA and other law enforcement agencies, is effective in preventing drugs from reaching local communities where they fuel violence and exploitation, causing significant harm to our society.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help prevent drones being used to bring drugs and other illicit goods into prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are working hard to deter, detect and disrupt the illegal use of drones to deliver contraband into prisons. We conduct vulnerability assessments across the estate to understand the risk and develop and implement plans to manage and mitigate the threat, including physical countermeasures.
The Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Act 2021 established powers for prisons to authorise the use of counter-drone technology. This Act also enables the police to stop and search those suspected of committing drone-related crimes.
In January this year, we strengthened the legislative framework by introducing Restricted Fly Zones around prisons to disrupt illegal drone use. This strengthens our ability to intercept illicit items being smuggled via drones, and enables the police to fine or prosecute those seeking to undermine prison security.
Recent joint operations with the police and HMPPS have resulted in a number of drone related arrests and disruptions to the activity of serious and organised crime networks. Since June 2016 we have secured over 70 convictions, and those convicted have been sentenced to more than a total of 240 years in prison.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, 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 (A) 2018, (B) 2019, (C) 2020, (D) 2021, (E) 2022 and (F) 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. A minority of staff engage in corrupt activity which is often as a result of conditioning and manipulation by prisoners.
HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has a zero-tolerance policy on staff who convey drugs into prisons, and take appropriate action to a small number of prison staff who break the rules. Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including reducing the number of staff being manipulated and conditioned by prisoners, is ongoing. This includes increased resource to pursue corruption, as well as established a new ‘Prevent’ function, aimed at building staff resilience against corruption. The increased numbers detailed in the tables below may reflect this increased investment in monitoring and reporting of drug conveyance and corruption, as well as increasing staff numbers across the prison estate.
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.
a) Below is a table showing the breakdown of Prison Officers and Prison staff who have been investigated in relation to the supply of drugs in prison between Dec 2020 to Dec 2023.
Table 1
Operations Opened | ||
| Prison Officer | Non-Prisoner Officer |
2020 | 268 | 449 |
2021 | 424 | 728 |
2022 | 465 | 742 |
2023 | 435 | 720 |
Source: Linkspace Case Management System.
b) Below is a table showing the breakdown of total Prison Officers and Prison staff who have been Arrested in relation to the supply of drugs in prison between Dec 2020 to Dec 2023.
Conveyance Arrests Total | |
| Total - Prison Officer and Non-Prison Officer |
2020 | 34 |
2021 | 43 |
2022 | 37 |
2023 | 47 |
Source: Linkspace Case Management System.
Note: numbers for arrests cannot be separated by job, so are grouped for prison officers and non-prison officers.
c) Below is a table showing the breakdown of conveyance charges between Dec 2020 to Dec 2023.
Conveyance Charges | ||
| Prison Officer | Non-Prison Officer |
2020 | 10 | 22 |
2021 | 25 | 39 |
2022 | 16 | 30 |
2023 | 20 | 36 |
Source: Linkspace Case Management System.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers were charged under the (a) Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and (b) Prisons Act 1952 for smuggling drugs into prison in each year since 2018.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. A minority of staff engage in corrupt activity which is often as a result of conditioning and manipulation by prisoners.
HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has a zero-tolerance policy on corruption and takes appropriate action to the small number of staff and prisoners who break the rules. Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons including reducing the number of staff being manipulated and conditioned by prisoners, is ongoing. This includes increased resource to pursue corruption, as well as established a new ‘Prevent’ function, aimed at building staff resilience against corruption.
a) The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is not a charge associated to offences pursed by the Counter Corruption Unit, which tackles the corruption linked to HMPPS staff and prisoners.
b) The Counter Corruption Unit dataset is specific to charges within the act, notably conveyance. To provide the requested data it would be a disproportionate cost to check individual records to provide an answer to this question.