Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average waiting time for prisoners to access an accredited drug treatment programme in prison; and how long, on average, an individual participates in an accredited drug treatment programme in prison once they have begun treatment.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
Data on substance misuse treatment in prisons and other secure settings is available from Public Health England’s National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS).
The latest NDTMS report for 2017-18 shows the median time between a person entering an adult secure setting and receiving a triage assessment for substance misuse treatment was one day. Nearly all - 96%, or 34,368/35,689 - adults started their first treatment intervention within three weeks of being assessed but would start treatment immediately if it was clinically appropriate to do so. The rest - 3% or 1,092 - waited over three weeks, and 1% or 229 did not have an intervention recorded.
The report also provides information on the mean length of time adults participate in structured treatment while in a secure setting. The average length of a treatment intervention for opiate clients was 72 days, non-opiate clients was 125 days, non-opiate and alcohol clients was 112 days and alcohol only clients was 78 days.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average length of stay for a prisoner in each prison in England and Wales, for each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
We do not routinely measure the average length of stay of offenders in prison as to do so would mean examining a range of data including some offenders’ individual records. Therefore, to answer this question could only be done at disproportionate cost.
We do, however, prepare and publish the mean and median average time served by released prisoners in England & Wales according to sentence length. Some of this data can be found in the table below, a further breakdown is available in the attached tables.
Table - Mean and Median time served in prison by prisoners released from determinate sentences by sentence length and sex
| Mean time (months) served by prison sentence (male and female prisoners) | Median time (months) served by prisons sentence (male and female prisoners) |
2017 | 19.2 | 8 |
2016R | 18.8 | 8 |
2015R 2 | 18.4 | 8 |
2014 | 19.1 | Not available |
2013 | 18.9 | Not available |
Data revisions
(R) Existing data processing of average time served figures artificially rounded down to the nearest whole number of months. The revised figures presented here are based on unrounded average time served data. This change has had the effect of revising all of the previous time served figures and this has also resulted in a change in all of the 'percentage time served' figures.
(2) Due to improvements in IT systems, the 2015 prisons admissions data was taken from a different source, and, for statistical reporting purposes only, are produced using a different method.
The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of suicide rates among offenders on licence and in prisons; what assessment they have made of whether the number of offenders in the prison system contributes to those suicide rates; and whether they have plans to reduce the number of offenders in the prison system.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Government publishes data on the number of deaths among offenders being supervised in the community, and on the number and rates of deaths in prisons. The most recent statistics were released on 25 October 2018. In the year to March 2018, among offenders under post-release supervision there were 1.4 self-inflicted deaths per 1,000 offenders, down from 1.7 per 1,000 in the previous year. This rate is calculated against a snapshot of the number of offenders under supervision on 31 March, not against the total number who had been supervised during the year. The rate of self-inflicted deaths in prison in the year to September 2018 was 1.0 per 1,000 prisoners: up from 0.9 per 1,000 in the previous 12 months, but below the rate in each of the three years before that. The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep staff and prisoners safe, and we are committed to reducing the incidence of self-harm and suicide across the estate. This is why we have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to improve safety in custody. They include:
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Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the funding previously assigned to the Drug Interventions Programme to tackle drug-related offending by helping drug-using offenders to access treatment will be retained; and whether that funding will continue to be focused on the specific needs of that group of people.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Home Office funding previously assigned to the Drug Interventions Programme is now part of money allocated to Police and Crime Commissioners. This has been the case since 2012/ 2013 in London, and from 2013/ 2014 for the rest of England and Wales.
The Government continues to encourage use of drug testing on arrest to support police forces in monitoring new patterns around drugs and crime and provide an early opportunity to refer offenders into treatment.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the report Our Invisible Addicts by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the reported rise in the rates of drug related deaths, whether they plan to carry out a national review of the relationship between service users over 40 participating in structured addiction treatment and those users’ engagement with primary, community and adult social care services.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
There are no plans to carry out a review into this specific issue. Public Health England (PHE) has already led an inquiry into the rises in drug-related deaths. The inquiry report Understanding and preventing drug-related deaths: The report of a national expert working group to investigate drug-related death in England was published on 9 September 2016 and a copy is attached.
PHE continues to support local authorities in delivering tailored, accessible and effective services where people stand the best chance of recovery.
In 2017, PHE published updated clinical guidelines for clinicians treating people with drug use problems, which contains a section addressing the importance of preventing and treating drug use problems in older people. The guidelines were developed by an expert group and are kept under regular review. A copy of the Drug Misuse and dependence: UK guidelines on clinical management is attached.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how NHS-led Sustainability and Transformation Plans, including accountable care systems of integrated health and social care, will work with local authority procured substance misuse services to ensure vulnerable service users are given the right priority of access to treatment and care.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government is clear that decisions about service provision are best taken at a local level by local clinicians.
Sustainability and transformation partnerships (STPs) are five-year collaborations between the National Health Service, local government and other key partners for improving health and wellbeing, developing new models of care, and improving the quality and efficiency of services in local areas across England.
The way STPs work in practice will vary according to the needs of different parts of the country and any decision on how they will work with local substance misuse services will be taken at a local level.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following research by Release in regard to variation in the provision of, and access to, the potentially lifesaving drug naloxone, what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the response from local authorities; and whether they will take action to implement a nationally coordinated and monitored take-home naloxone programme in England.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Naloxone has a vital role in saving lives and the Government is committed to widening its use in England. Public Health England has reviewed available research including surveys conducted by the Local Government Association and Release, and will use those findings in supporting local authorities to extend their provision of naloxone. The Government has updated advice and guidance on naloxone as part of its commitment to develop a more consistent and joined up approach to commissioning and delivery in England and will continue to monitor provision in all local areas.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the increasing misuse of fentanyl; and whether they intend to introduce evidence-based key performance indicators for harm reduction initiatives in order to prioritise and support those initiatives.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Substance misuse is lower than it was a decade ago but we must always be alive to emerging threats and the reports linking fentanyl to a number of fatal drug overdoses are extremely concerning. That is why the Home Secretary has asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to investigate the risks around fentanyl analogues, so that we can maximise the effectiveness of our response.
The Government’s updated Drug Strategy will capture the impact of wider health and social care costs and harms associated with drug misuse, including: hospital admissions related to drug misuse; rates of blood borne viruses and numbers of drug-related deaths, including on release from prison.
Public Health England supports local areas in responding to the threat from fentanyl, and other potent opiates.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the publication in 2016 by the ONS of statistics showing the highest rate of drug-related deaths amongst women since records began in 1993, what steps they have taken to tackle the specific issues faced by female drug misusers and to reduce any barriers to accessing treatment.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Government is investing over £16 billion over the Spending Review period for local authorities (LAs) to spend on public health. LAs are responsible for making decisions on how to spend their local allocation but the public health grant conditions make it clear that they must have regard for the need to improve the take up of, and outcomes from, their drug and alcohol misuse treatment services.
Public Health England supports LAs to commission effective drug and alcohol prevention and treatment services to meet the needs of their local population, and in working to reduce drug related deaths. This includes guidance developed with drug service providers with a focus on ensuring that women can access quality drug treatment and recovery services and interventions. A copy of Improving Clinical Responses to Drug-Related Deaths: A summary of best practice and innovations from drug treatment providers is attached.
Asked by: Lord Patel of Bradford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of drug-related deaths of people in treatment services; and what data they have on whether the number of drug-related deaths of people who died while they were in treatment services increased over the last year.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
Public Health England (PHE) has issued advice on providing naloxone, supported the publication of updated clinical guidelines for drug treatment, and supported a network of treatment providers to establish good practice guidance on managing drug-related death risk factors.
PHE continues to work with local authorities and treatment providers to support their work in reducing drug-related deaths. This includes improving drug-related death review processes and increasing the number of people with drug problems who are in drug treatment.
Published figures by PHE show the total number of people who died while in contact with treatment services in 2016-17 was 2,680, showing a decrease from 2015-16 where there were 2,689 deaths in treatment. These figures are for all deaths in treatment, not just drug-related ones.