Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many confiscated drugs found in prisons have been tested in each year since 2010.

We take a zero-tolerance approach to drugs in our prisons. Anyone found with contraband will be subject to disciplinary action and police investigation. We are taking unprecedented action to stop the supply and use of drugs, including an innovative new drug testing programme and have over 300 dogs to detect psychoactive substances.

We have also invested £3 million in enhanced intelligence, to improve our targeted intelligence and search capabilities. We are working closely with government partners to address issues with drugs at every stage of the supply chain, including those attempting to smuggle drugs into prisons.

In this case the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. This is because Prison-NOMIS does not, normally, contain this data in a consistent format, and much of the data is held at a local level.