Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents relating to Spice have been recorded at HM Prison Berwyn since that prison opened in Spring 2017.

The Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) takes seriously the ongoing challenges that substance misuse, including psychoactive substances (PS) pose to our establishments and we continue to implement a range of measures to address both the availability and use of such harmful substances. This is based on a multi-agency approach working closely with health partners and law enforcement agencies.

The HMPPS Incident Reporting System does not specifically record the reasons behind an incident and therefore it is not possible to provide the information requested.

Prisons have at their disposal a range of security measures to reduce the supply of drugs into prisons including physical searching, the use of x-ray machines, CCTV surveillance cameras, intelligence-led searches as well as drug detection dogs. HMPPS have trained more than 300 dogs to detect PS and these dogs are available to all prisons. HMPPS are also exploring additional innovative security measures and new technology to complement existing searching methods in prisons.

The introduction of mandatory drug testing for psychoactive substances in prisons in September 2016 was also a significant step to support our prisons in tackling the supply and use of these lethal drugs. We are not aware of any other prison service in the world that has introduced these innovative new tests.