Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the change has been in the amount of illegal drugs seized in prisons between 2000 and 2015.

We take a zero tolerance approach to drugs in prison and there are already a range of robust measures in place in prisons to detect drugs, including the use of search dogs and intelligence-led searches. We recently introduced tough new laws which will see those who smuggle packages over prison walls, including new psychoactive substances, face up to two years in prison. Those who involve themselves in the distribution of drugs in our prisons should know that they will face prosecution and extra time behind bars.

The table below gives the number of drug finds in prisons in England and Wales in the timeframe requested:

(1) Where more than one drug type is found within a single incident, each drug type is counted individually.

(2) Includes NOMS operated Immigration Removal Centres.

(3) Data in whole years only and is not yet available for 2015

Note to Tables:

1. All figures in this answer have been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended at any time.Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. The data are not subject to audit.