Prisons: Drugs
(asked on 8th March 2021) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of illegal drugs tests were positive in August (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020 in the following prisons (i) Hull, (ii) Humber, (iii) Leeds, (iv) Lindholme, (v) Moorland, Hatfield Woodhouse, South Yorkshire, (vi) Wealstun, near Wetherby, West Yorkshire, (vii) Nottingham, (viii) Ranby, Nottinghamshire, (ix) Wormwood Scrubs and (x) Isis, south-east London.
Provided below is the number of random mandatory drug testing (MDT) tests, which includes both illegal drugs and misused legal drugs, that were positive, and the proportion of total MDT tests administered in the prisons listed across August of 2018 and 2019:
| Aug-18 | Aug-19 | ||||||||
Reporting Unit | Total number of samples tested | No of positives (all drugs) | % of positives (all drugs) | No of positives (traditional drugs only) | % of positives (traditional drugs only) | Total number of samples tested | No of positives (all drugs) | % of positives (all drugs) | No of positives (traditional drugs only) | % of positives (traditional drugs only) |
Hull | 48 | 7 | 15% | 5 | 10% | 49 | 3 | 6% | 3 | 6% |
Humber | 50 | 13 | 26% | 7 | 14% | 52 | 1 | 2% | 1 | 2% |
Isis | 31 | 7 | 23% | 4 | 13% | 32 | 8 | 25% | 8 | 25% |
Leeds | 52 | 6 | 12% | 4 | 8% | 54 | 4 | 7% | 4 | 7% |
Lindholme | 46 | 18 | 39% | 7 | 15% | 48 | 5 | 10% | 5 | 10% |
Moorland | 48 | 13 | 27% | 4 | 8% | 48 | 4 | 8% | 4 | 8% |
Nottingham | 6 | 1 | 17% | 1 | 17% | 41 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 0% |
Ranby | 48 | 16 | 33% | 3 | 6% | 51 | 7 | 14% | 7 | 14% |
Wealstun | 41 | 13 | 32% | 6 | 15% | 44 | 6 | 14% | 6 | 14% |
Wormwood Scrubs | 60 | 20 | 33% | 17 | 28% | 54 | 4 | 7% | 4 | 7% |
MDT in prisons and young offender institutions seeks to inform HMPPS on the prevalence of drug use through random testing. The key objective of MDT is to provide a means of identifying prisoners with ongoing drug problems and ensure they are offered the appropriate treatment, as well as providing evidence that can be used in prisons disciplinary procedures. MDT is continually reviewed to determine its effectiveness.
Data for the year up to March 2021, including August 2020, will not be quality assured, finalised and published until July 2021, so has not been included in this response. Caution should be taken in drawing conclusions about trends over the requested time period from the outcomes stated above since they are based on a relatively small number of tests in each prison each month, and will be subject to monthly variation.
We have included data on positive tests for traditional drugs only as well as for all drugs, which includes tests for Psychoactive Substances (PS), since the former is more reliable for making comparisons over this time period. This is because positive test results decreased in the 12 months ending March 2020, and to a lesser extent in previous year, and it is highly likely these decreases resulted from new compounds of PS entering into circulation in prisons which HMPPS did not have a legal basis to test for at that time. There were a small number of PS positive results in August 2019 but, because all of these were in samples that also tested positive for one or more traditional drugs, the numbers for ‘all drugs’ and ‘traditional drugs only’ are identical.
We are working with law enforcement and health partners across government to restrict the supply and reduce demand for illicit substances.
In April 2019, we published the National Prison Drugs Strategy and have gone further by investing £100 million to boost security to help stop drugs getting into jails. We continue to progress this work during the Covid-19 pandemic
The Government fully supports the Rt. Hon. Dame Cheryl Gillan’s Prisons (Substance Testing) Bill, which seeks to futureproof drug testing programs in prisons and young offender institutions by adopting a broad definition of PS so that the drug testing framework can quickly respond to new drugs emerging on the market.