Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) knives, (b) guns, (c) other weapons and (d) illicit substances were seized from people visiting prisoners in (i) total and (ii) each prison in each year since 2010.

The HMPPS Annual Digest for the relevant years, where available, contains information in relation to weapons and illicit substances found within the estate. It does not contain data broken down into different classes of weapon. There is no available data in relation to the proportion of finds attributable to individuals visiting the prison estate.

The Government takes seriously the conveyance of weapons and other illicit items and substances into prisons.

In August 2019, the Government committed to invest £100 million in prison security in an ambitious new Security Investment Programme. One of the aims of the Programme was to reduce illicit items entering the prison estate.

Since then, we have installed 73 X-ray body scanners across the prison estate and to date have had over 9000 positive indications. The roll out of Enhanced Gate Security (EGS), replicating the tough measures used in airport screening, has resulted in hundreds of illicit items prevented from entering prisons.