Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle the smuggling of (a) drugs and (b) communication devices into prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are committed to tackling the smuggling of all illicit items into prisons, including drugs and communication devices such as mobile phones.
We completed the £100 million Security Investment Programme in March 2022, which included funding to bolster physical security measures. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners, resulting in full coverage across the closed adult male estate. As of October 2023, we had recorded 46,925 positive indications, helping to tackle the supply of drugs and mobile phones into prisons. We also deployed Enhanced Gate Security to 42 high-risk prisons under this investment, implementing routine searching of staff and visitors. This included 659 dedicated staff, 154 drug sniffing dogs and over 200 pieces of equipment.
We have 165 drug trace detection machines across the prison estate to prevent the smuggling of drugs, such as psychoactive substances, through the mail. The rollout of an additional 20 next-generation devices was completed in March 2024, meaning every public section prison now has this next-generation equipment.
X-ray baggage scanners have been installed at 49 sites (45 prisons and 4 learning centres) building on the rollout of our X-ray body scanners, gate security and drug trace detection machines.
New airspace restrictions took effect on 25 January 2024 to create 400 metre flight restriction zones around all closed prisons and young offender institutions in England and Wales. These will ensure swift action is taken against criminal drone activity, including the smuggling of illicit items.
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, how many weapon finds there were in prisons in England and Wales in each year sine 2018.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of incidents of weapon finds in prisons in England and Wales is published in the HMPPS Annual Digest through the Finds Incidents Data Tool.
The figures include incidents occurring within escort areas. These figures represent the number of incidents where weapons were found - multiple weapons can be found and recorded as one incident.
Weapons drive violence, undermine safety and security and have no place in our prisons.
Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including reducing the smuggling of illicit items such as weapons, was completed in March 2022. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the closed adult male estate. As of October 2023, we have recorded 46,925 positive indications, helping to tackle the smuggling of weapons and other illicit items into prisons. The investment also funded Enhanced Gate Security at 42 high-risk sites, enhancing our routine searching of staff and visitors. 84 X-ray baggage scanners have also been installed at 49 sites to further strengthen our ability to detect the smuggling of illicit items including weapons.
In January this year, we introduced Restricted Fly Zones around prisons to disrupt illegal drone use. This strengthens our ability to intercept illicit items, such as weapons, being smuggled via drones, and enables the police to fine or prosecute those seeking to undermine prison security.
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.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many illicit mobile phones were found in prisons in (a) England and (b) Wales in each year since 2019.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Mobile phones are a key enabler for prisoners to engage in criminality which impacts into both prisons and the community including drug supply, violence and harassment of victims and witnesses.
MoJ’s £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including reducing the smuggling of illicit items such as mobile phones, was completed in March 2022. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the closed adult male estate. As of October 2023, we have recorded 46,925 positive indications, helping to tackle the smuggling of mobile phones and other contraband into prisons.
The number of mobile phones found in prisons in England and Wales is published in the HMPPS Annual Digest through the Finds in Prison Tables: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c143b41e10bf000e17cf9e/8.__Finds.ods. Table 8.3 provides the number of mobile phones found per prison in England and Wales.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that the data has been drawn from large scale administrative systems, and as such is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to (a) help tackle and (b) vet HM Prison staff to ensure compliance with rules on the smuggling of contraband into prisons; and whether he has had recent discussions with his counterparts in the devolved Administrations on a UK-wide approach to this issue.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. All HMPPS prison staff are subject to pre-employment vetting checks, including social and digital media vetting checks, to assess whether candidates meet the high standards expected of them to work in HMPPS and assures a standard of resilience upon entry. This vetting is renewed every 10 years.
HMPPS is undertaking a Vetting Reform Programme and applying the recommendations from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Police, Fire & Rescue Services report of 2022: “An Inspection of Vetting, Misconduct and Misogyny in the Police Service” to prisons and probation.
The Department has not held discussions with devolved administrations about vetting but will consider the merits of doing so to ensure processes remain modern and robust across the UK.
We committed to having a zero-tolerance approach to crime in prisons. Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including the smuggling of contraband, was completed in March 2022. This investment delivered airport-style enhanced gate security to 42 high-risk sites, implementing routine searching of staff. We have since gone further and installed X-ray baggage scanners at 49 sites and invested into new drug trace detection equipment across the estate.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department collects on the number of items thrown over the walls into prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does hold data on the number of incidents of items being thrown into prisons, however releasing the method of entry for contraband items is a security risk. Therefore, it cannot be released to answer this PQ.
We are committed to tackling all methods of smuggling into prisons, including throwovers. We completed the £100 million Security Investment Programme in March 2022, which included funding to bolster physical security measures. Prisons also conduct perimeter searches based on their Local Security Strategy to address the threat of throwovers, which complement physical barriers such as fencing and netting.
Intelligence and information relating to the conveyance of illicit items into prisons is shared routinely with the police and serves to inform and direct operational activity, which in turn drives arrests and prosecutions.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce concerns about violence and personal safety for prison officers and prisoners in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The safety of staff and prisoners is a key priority, and we continue our efforts to address the levels of violence in prison.
We are equipping our staff with the right tools and training to maintain safety in our prisons. We have rolled out a new Body Worn Video Camera system and we are rolling out PAVA – a synthetic pepper spray – in the adult male estate alongside SPEAR, a personal safety training package.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 doubled the maximum penalty to up to two years’ imprisonment for those who assault emergency workers, including prison officers.
We continue to support prisoners at risk of violence to move away from violent behaviours and we are delivering a £100m Security Investment Programme to disrupt smuggling of illicit items such as drugs and weapons that can fuel prison violence.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce mobile phone use in prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
It is a crime to possess or operate a mobile phone in prisons, and prisoners caught with devices can face extra time behind bars.
Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, completed in March 2022, and included funding to reduce the smuggling of illicit items such as mobile phones into prisons, and our measures are producing results. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the closed adult male estate. As of October 2022, we had recorded 28,626 positive indications, helping to tackle the supply mobile phones into prisons.
We have invested in a variety of mobile phone detection and blocking equipment across the prison estate to reduce mobile phone use. HMPPS also have a specialist digital team who ensure the data from illicit devices (including mobile phones) that are found in possession of prisoners can be subsequently analysed enhancing our ability to evidence criminality.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many illegal drugs have been seized (a) since the £100 million funding for prison x ray scanners was completed in 2020 and (b) in the comparable time period before that funding was allocated.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Delivery of the £100m Security Investment Programme was completed in March 2022 and included measures to prevent the smuggling of illicit items, such as drugs, into prisons. Under this investment, 75 additional X-ray body scanners were deployed, resulting in full coverage of the entire closed adult male prison estate. Between July 2020 and October 2022 there were approximately 28,000 positive indications on these X-ray body scanners.
The number of incidents where drugs are found in prisons in England and Wales is published in the HMPPS Annual Digest through the incidents data tool. Between April 2020 and March 2022, there were 37,995 drug find incidents in prisons in England and Wales. In comparison, between April 2018 and March 2020, there were 39,900 drug find incidents in prisons in England and Wales.
This reports the number of drug find incidents rather than the amount of drugs found, and incidents can include different quantities of drugs. It is important to consider with incidents of drug finds in prisons, that an increase in numbers may be as a result of more items being found, rather than more items being present in prisons.