Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what additional staffing resources the Government plans to allocate to prisons to enable officers and prison authorities to meet the objectives of the Government's new drugs strategy.

We are in the process of recruiting 2,500 new prison officers who receive substance misuse training as part of their overall training. This training includes identification of drugs and the impact they may have on health; signposting prisoners into relevant treatment/recovery services; and strategies to reduce supply and demand of drugs in prisons.

Prisons have at their disposal a range of security measures to reduce the supply of drugs being smuggled into prisons including physical searching, the use of x-ray machines, CCTV surveillance cameras, intelligence-led searches and drug detection dogs. We have also introduced new national and regional intelligence units, and are investing over £3 million in creating counter-serious organised crime (SOC) units in HMPPS, which are working with establishments and law enforcement partners to develop intelligence on individuals and organised crime groups linked to the supply of drugs in prisons.

To deter and disrupt the use of dangerous drugs, we are the first jurisdiction in the world to have developed and rolled out a new test for psychoactive substances (since September 2016) across the prison estate. We continue to work with our contracted laboratory to analyse data to ensure we are testing for the most commonly misused substances.

Governors are being empowered to deliver the changes that are most important for their prisons. From April 17, Governors have been given more freedom over how they organise their staff, including the ability to decide their staffing structure.

In addition to this, since April 2017 governors have greater input into decision making about health provision in their prisons, enabling them to identify and work with NHS England commissioners to improve healthcare services in their prisons, including addiction services.