Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish a breakdown by substance type of the number of finds of controlled substances in prison since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Drug finds are classified as incidents in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service published data. The number of incidents of drug finds, broken down by drug type can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c143fad4051a00145a9422/8.__Finds_drug_type_data_tool.xlsx.
Please note the following caveats:
(1) It is important to consider with incidents of finds in prisons, that an increase in numbers may be as a result of more items being found, although not necessarily attributable to any one particular security counter-measure, rather than more items being present in prisons.
(2) More than one type of drug can be found in a single incident, therefore the sum of the drug types found will be higher than the total incidents.
(3) A new incident type was introduced in October 2015 to improve reporting of finds incidents. This included the introduction of several new drug types so the classifications are not directly comparable prior to this period. Buprenorphine, Gabapentin, Methadone, Pregabalin, Psychoactive substances, Steroids and Tramadol were all added during 2015-16, Benzodiazepines were added during 2016-17, and Ketamine was added during 2021-22. As a consequence the contents of the ‘other’ line will be different throughout the series
All prisons have a zero-tolerance approach to drugs. Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs, was completed in March 2022. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the closed adult male estate. Under this programme, all public sector sites have also been provided with next-generation drug trace detection machines. This technology enables prisons to detect attempts to convey drugs into prisons. The equipment is effective in identifying drugs that have been soaked onto letters, clothing and other items.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison staff (a) in total and (b) as a proportion of the prison workforce had received training to deal with extremist prisoners as of 26 April in each year since 2017.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The method for recording counter terrorism training data has changed over time, so the information requested cannot be provided. Since December 2021, over 17,000 directly employed HMPPS prison staff have been trained in counter terrorism (through the Awareness for Staff on Prevent Extremism and Counter Terrorism Strategy (ASPECTS) programme).
ASPECTS is delivered by counter-terrorist specialists and since 2017, all newly recruited Prison Officers have received ASPECTS training as part of their initial foundation training.
Data as a proportion of the workforce also cannot be provided as records include staff who have since left the prison service and may also include staff who have attended training more than once. The figure also does not include training figures for non-directly employed staff (i.e. those working in private prisons).
The below table shows the number of individuals convicted under Terrorism legislation (TACT), or of other offences considered to have a terrorism connection (TACT-connected), who were being managed by the Probation Service in each year since 2020.
Year | No. under probation supervision. |
2020 | 132 |
2021 | 239 |
2022 | 217 |
2023 | 254 |
2024 | 234 |
Data can only be provided since 2020 as that is when the information began to be recorded centrally.
All high-risk offenders released on licence are managed under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements, through which police, probation, the prison service and other agencies work together to keep the public safe. Upon release, terrorist offenders are subject to robust risk management, and stringent controls which severely limit their activity. This can include extended periods of electronic monitoring, accommodation in Approved Premises, and polygraph testing.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people who had been convicted of offences under the Terrorism Act 2006 and related offences were being monitored by the Probation Service in each year since 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The method for recording counter terrorism training data has changed over time, so the information requested cannot be provided. Since December 2021, over 17,000 directly employed HMPPS prison staff have been trained in counter terrorism (through the Awareness for Staff on Prevent Extremism and Counter Terrorism Strategy (ASPECTS) programme).
ASPECTS is delivered by counter-terrorist specialists and since 2017, all newly recruited Prison Officers have received ASPECTS training as part of their initial foundation training.
Data as a proportion of the workforce also cannot be provided as records include staff who have since left the prison service and may also include staff who have attended training more than once. The figure also does not include training figures for non-directly employed staff (i.e. those working in private prisons).
The below table shows the number of individuals convicted under Terrorism legislation (TACT), or of other offences considered to have a terrorism connection (TACT-connected), who were being managed by the Probation Service in each year since 2020.
Year | No. under probation supervision. |
2020 | 132 |
2021 | 239 |
2022 | 217 |
2023 | 254 |
2024 | 234 |
Data can only be provided since 2020 as that is when the information began to be recorded centrally.
All high-risk offenders released on licence are managed under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements, through which police, probation, the prison service and other agencies work together to keep the public safe. Upon release, terrorist offenders are subject to robust risk management, and stringent controls which severely limit their activity. This can include extended periods of electronic monitoring, accommodation in Approved Premises, and polygraph testing.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many former prison guards were found guilty of criminal offences in each year since 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information on how many former prison guards were found guilty of criminal offences in each year since 2015 is not centrally held.
This is because the information cannot be obtained from the administrative systems held for the public authority purposes by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service and the Ministry of Justice. If held, this information can only be obtained by accessing the case records themselves; these case records are held in the custody of the court for the purposes of the court, only.
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 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 £100 million 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.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish a breakdown of drug incidents in prison by (a) drug type and (b) class since 2010.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Drug finds are classified as incidents in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service published data. The number of incidents of drug finds, broken down by drug type can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64c143fad4051a00145a9422/8.__Finds_drug_type_data_tool.xlsx.
Please note the following caveats:
(1) It is important to consider with incidents of finds in prisons, that an increase in numbers may be as a result of more items being found, although not necessarily attributable to any one particular security counter-measure, rather than more items being present in prisons.
(2) More than one type of drug can be found in a single incident, therefore the sum of the drug types found will be higher than the total incidents.
(3) A new incident type was introduced in October 2015 to improve reporting of finds incidents. This included the introduction of several new drug types so the classifications are not directly comparable prior to this period. Buprenorphine, Gabapentin, Methadone, Pregabalin, Psychoactive substances, Steroids and Tramadol were all added during 2015-16, Benzodiazepines were added during 2016-17, and Ketamine was added during 2021-22. As a consequence the contents of the ‘other’ line will be different throughout the series
All prisons have a zero-tolerance approach to drugs. Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs, was completed in March 2022. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the closed adult male estate. Under this programme, all public sector sites have also been provided with next-generation drug trace detection machines. This technology enables prisons to detect attempts to convey drugs into prisons. The equipment is effective in identifying drugs that have been soaked onto letters, clothing and other items.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of armed forces personnel were (a) Medically Not Deployable and (b) Medically Limited Deployable in each year since 2010, broken down by service branch.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The following table provides the number (n) and proportion of UK Armed Forces personnel, broken down by Service, with a Medical Deployability Standard of Medically Limited Deployable (MLD) and Medically Non-Deployable (MND), as at 1 April of each year from 2010 to 2023:
Service | Royal Navy | Army | RAF | |||||||||
| MLD | MND | MLD | MND | MLD | MND | ||||||
Date | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % |
01-Apr-10 | 1,843 | 5.2% | 2,938 | 8.3% | 14,786 | 14.5% | 6,736 | 6.6% | 1,472 | 3.7% | 3,941 | 9.8% |
01-Apr-11 | 1,995 | 5.6% | 2,882 | 8.1% | 15,217 | 15.0% | 6,952 | 6.9% | 1,616 | 4.0% | 3,966 | 9.9% |
01-Apr-12 | 1,786 | 5.4% | 2,866 | 8.6% | 14,319 | 14.5% | 7,480 | 7.6% | 1,561 | 4.1% | 3,865 | 10.1% |
01-Apr-13 | 1,825 | 5.8% | 2,697 | 8.6% | 12,237 | 13.0% | 8,021 | 8.5% | 1,402 | 4.0% | 3,634 | 10.3% |
01-Apr-14 | 1,732 | 5.7% | 2,859 | 9.4% | 10,667 | 12.2% | 7,938 | 9.1% | 1,412 | 4.3% | 3,599 | 10.8% |
01-Apr-15 | 1,846 | 6.1% | 2,840 | 9.4% | 10,122 | 12.3% | 8,246 | 10.0% | 1,433 | 4.5% | 3,461 | 10.9% |
01-Apr-16 | 1,932 | 6.5% | 2,892 | 9.7% | 10,001 | 12.5% | 8,308 | 10.4% | 1,618 | 5.2% | 3,622 | 11.7% |
01-Apr-17 | 2,044 | 6.9% | 2,722 | 9.2% | 9,971 | 12.7% | 7,890 | 10.1% | 1,845 | 6.0% | 3,304 | 10.7% |
01-Apr-18 | 2,032 | 6.9% | 2,762 | 9.4% | 10,005 | 13.0% | 6,907 | 9.0% | 1,952 | 6.4% | 3,321 | 10.9% |
01-Apr-19 | 2,145 | 7.3% | 2,864 | 9.8% | 9,964 | 13.3% | 6,702 | 8.9% | 2,139 | 7.1% | 3,480 | 11.6% |
01-Apr-20 | 2,279 | 7.8% | 2,930 | 10.1% | 9,434 | 12.8% | 6,667 | 9.0% | 2,310 | 7.8% | 3,675 | 12.4% |
01-Apr-21 | 2,396 | 8.1% | 2,899 | 9.8% | 8,937 | 11.6% | 6,447 | 8.4% | 2,399 | 8.0% | 3,455 | 11.5% |
01-Apr-22 | 2,306 | 7.7% | 3,279 | 11.0% | 9,388 | 12.2% | 7,600 | 9.8% | 2,458 | 8.2% | 3,884 | 13.0% |
01-Apr-23 | 2,197 | 7.5% | 3,286 | 11.2% | 9,263 | 12.4% | 7,669 | 10.2% | 2,488 | 8.5% | 4,081 | 13.9% |
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many applications to join the Armed Forces were rejected due to previous criminal convictions in each year since 2015.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The requested information is provided in the attached spreadsheet.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of security measures in place for the Police National Computer.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Number of outages affecting the PNC, breakdown below. Partial PNC outages are included in the breakdown. Therefore, elements of the PNC service may have been available during the outage period.
Outages on the same day have been counted as separate instances.
Year | Number of outages - Planned | Number of outages - Unplanned |
2015 | 22 | 48 |
2016 | 10 | 18 |
2017 | 9 | 17 |
2018 | 13 | 12 |
2019 | 4 | 1 |
2020 | 7 | 12 |
2021 | 11 | 18 |
2022 | 14 | 13 |
2023 | 17 | 18 |
*2024 | 4 | 6 |
Total | 111 | 163 |
* Outages for 2024 are reported up to 31st March 2024.
Regular Security IT Health Checks/Audits are undertaken on PNC with actions to manage, mitigate or resolve vulnerabilities progressed to enhance the security of the system. The PNC is security assured by the Police Digital Service on behalf of Policing and in line with HO policy.
PNC has a number of back up servers for resilience and mirroring to provide a Disaster Recovery capability from a secondary site. There are numerous back up servers at the primary site and also at the DR site providing several layers of back up for the operation of the PNC
****NOTE - providing detail on the numbers of actual servers increases the operational risk to PNC.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outages have affected the Police National Computer in each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Number of outages affecting the PNC, breakdown below. Partial PNC outages are included in the breakdown. Therefore, elements of the PNC service may have been available during the outage period.
Outages on the same day have been counted as separate instances.
Year | Number of outages - Planned | Number of outages - Unplanned |
2015 | 22 | 48 |
2016 | 10 | 18 |
2017 | 9 | 17 |
2018 | 13 | 12 |
2019 | 4 | 1 |
2020 | 7 | 12 |
2021 | 11 | 18 |
2022 | 14 | 13 |
2023 | 17 | 18 |
*2024 | 4 | 6 |
Total | 111 | 163 |
* Outages for 2024 are reported up to 31st March 2024.
Regular Security IT Health Checks/Audits are undertaken on PNC with actions to manage, mitigate or resolve vulnerabilities progressed to enhance the security of the system. The PNC is security assured by the Police Digital Service on behalf of Policing and in line with HO policy.
PNC has a number of back up servers for resilience and mirroring to provide a Disaster Recovery capability from a secondary site. There are numerous back up servers at the primary site and also at the DR site providing several layers of back up for the operation of the PNC
****NOTE - providing detail on the numbers of actual servers increases the operational risk to PNC.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many back-up servers are in operation for the Police National Computer.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Number of outages affecting the PNC, breakdown below. Partial PNC outages are included in the breakdown. Therefore, elements of the PNC service may have been available during the outage period.
Outages on the same day have been counted as separate instances.
Year | Number of outages - Planned | Number of outages - Unplanned |
2015 | 22 | 48 |
2016 | 10 | 18 |
2017 | 9 | 17 |
2018 | 13 | 12 |
2019 | 4 | 1 |
2020 | 7 | 12 |
2021 | 11 | 18 |
2022 | 14 | 13 |
2023 | 17 | 18 |
*2024 | 4 | 6 |
Total | 111 | 163 |
* Outages for 2024 are reported up to 31st March 2024.
Regular Security IT Health Checks/Audits are undertaken on PNC with actions to manage, mitigate or resolve vulnerabilities progressed to enhance the security of the system. The PNC is security assured by the Police Digital Service on behalf of Policing and in line with HO policy.
PNC has a number of back up servers for resilience and mirroring to provide a Disaster Recovery capability from a secondary site. There are numerous back up servers at the primary site and also at the DR site providing several layers of back up for the operation of the PNC
****NOTE - providing detail on the numbers of actual servers increases the operational risk to PNC.