Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many confiscations of Class A drugs took place in prisons in (a) England and (b) Wales in each of the last three years.

Data on the number of incidents where Class A drugs were found in prisons in (a) England and (b) Wales in each of the last three years are provided in the attached table.

The availability of drugs in prison is yet another sign of the prisons crisis the new Government inherited. We are bringing the crisis under control and ensuring that a range of physical security countermeasures are used to reduce the conveyance of illicit items into prisons, including X-ray body scanners, airport-style Enhanced Gate Security, X-ray baggage scanners, detection dogs, and drug trace detection equipment.