Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many drug-related deaths have occurred in prisons each year since 2019.

There were 17 drug-related deaths in custody in 2019 identified when matching HMPPS deaths data to the ONS deaths registration database, as can be found in this publication: Drug-related deaths and suicide in prison custody in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).

The data used in this publication was for deaths from 2008 to 2019, and the information is not held in the form in which it has been requested from 2020 onwards. To identify drug-related deaths from 2020 onwards is not possible within the cost limit. This is due to the methodology needed to be consistent with the publication above. Linking each HMPPS death to the ONS deaths registration database to identify those which were drug-related is a complex task that would exceed the cost limit. As mentioned in the Guide to Safety in Custody Statistics – “Although HMPPS monitors drug related deaths, it does not use this category in published statistics because they are difficult to measure accurately. In addition, the category can blur the boundary with self-inflicted deaths.”

Therefore, we are unable to provide the number of drug-related deaths from 2020 onwards.

Please note, deaths in custody for 2023 are currently only published up to September. Deaths in custody for the rest of 2023 will be published on 25 January 2024 within Safety in Custody.