Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 June 2015 to Question 92, which prisons recorded no positive random drug test results in all months in 2014-15.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has a comprehensive drug strategy for prisons, which includes elements to both reduce the demand and supply of drugs in prisons. The success of the strategy is illustrated by the reduction of drug misuse in prisons, as measured by the random Mandatory Drug Testing (MDT) programme, which has declined by 17.5 percentage points over the past 17 years, despite the fact that NOMS is testing for more drugs than previously. Positive rates were 7.8% in 2009/2010 and 6.9% in 2014/2015.

The majority of prisons in England and Wales reported drug free months in the last year; however a single episode of drug misuse over a defined period would deprive a prison of drug free status. Prisons can perform very well in keeping drugs out of prison but technically not be drug free. One prison, Blantyre House, reported no positive random drug tests in every month over the period 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015.