Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2015 to Question 3782, in which prisons each of the (a) illegal items and (b) other items were found in each package that contained illegal items; and what each of those items were.

A range of measures are used by NOMS to prevent trafficking of items into prisons. There is a requirement for prisons to record centrally instances where drugs, mobile phones and firearms (including chemical incapacitants and ammunition) are seized coming into prison, but there is no such requirement in respect of other items.

During the period 1 February to 31 May 2015, there were 268 instances recorded where reportable illegal items were found in packages¹ sent to prisoners. The following table lists the (a) prisons and (b) corresponding reportable illegal items which were found.

¹ ‘Packages’ includes those incoming items recorded as “parcels”, “post”, “mail” or “packages”.