Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to support prisoners leaving prisons with drug addiction.

The Ministry of Justice works closely with the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England to ensure that people leaving prison with a drug or alcohol problem stay in treatment and can get the support they need to recover from addiction.

To support prison leavers to continue their recovery journey in the community, we have Health and Justice Partnership Coordinators nationwide, who strengthen links between prisons, probation and treatment providers. We also have secure laptops across the prison estate to enable prisoners to meet with community treatment providers virtually, prior to release, and the Probation Notification Actioning Project makes probation aware of prison leavers who have been referred to community treatment, so they can support them to engage with treatment.

We have also established the new Drug and Alcohol Recovery Expert Panel, where panel members with wide-ranging expertise will help to identify ways to strengthen our approach.