Prisons: Drugs

(asked on 12th February 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce rates of substance dependency in the prison population.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 25th February 2020

NHS England/Improvement (NHSE/I) are responsible for commissioning and delivering healthcare, including substance misuse services, in prisons. The Ministry of Justice works closely with our health and justice partners (Department for Health and Social Care, NHSE/I, HM Prison and Probation Service and Public Health England) to deliver safe, decent, effective healthcare for offenders through the National Partnership Agreement for Prison Healthcare in England, published in April 2018.

Last year we published The National Prison Drug Strategy which has three strands: restricting supply, reducing demand and ensuring prisoners are encouraged to engage in meaningful activity and treatment interventions to reduce drug misuse and dependency.

We are also testing and evaluating innovative approaches to substance misuse through our £9 million Drug Recovery Prison pilot at HMP Holme House. This is a joint MoJ and NHS E/I project to tackle drugs in prison and help prisoners improve their chance of recovery.

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