Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the first drug scanner will be installed in a prison in England or Wales.

The Government is committed to reducing the supply of drugs into prison. The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) already deploys a comprehensive range of robust searching and security measures to detect items of contraband both at the point of entry to the prison and concealed within the prison. We will continue to explore new methods of preventing drugs coming into prisons and new generation body scanners are seen as a valuable part of this.

The first machine has been purchased and will be installed in a prison during April 2015. There will be a programme of work, led by NOMS, to assess the most effective way to deploy body scanners across the estate, based on experience of their use in an operational setting. NOMS will be supported in this by the Centre for Applied Science and Technology.

The initial assessment will also provide valuable information for the subsequent tendering exercise. The precise costs of the wider programme will depend on the initial assessment and on the procurement exercise which will be undertaken to ensure that best value for money is obtained.