Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many drug recovery programmes were delivered in prisons in (a) 2010, (b) 2018 and (c) 2023.

Drug treatment in prisons is commissioned by NHS England, and data from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System is held by the Department of Health and Social Care. Published data on drug treatment in secure settings, including numbers in treatment, is available dating back to 2015. This can be found at:

• 2021/22: Substance misuse treatment in secure settings: 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
• 2018/19: Substance misuse treatment in secure settings: 2018 to 2019 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• 2017/18: Substance misuse treatment in secure settings: 2017 to 2018 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• 2015/16: Substance misuse treatment in secure settings: statistics 2015 to 2016 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

As part of the ambitious cross-Government Drug Strategy, the Ministry of Justice is rolling out a range of interventions to support prisoners off drugs and into recovery. This includes increasing the number of Incentivised Substance-Free Living wings from 25 in summer 2022 to 68 now, and testing a new approach to help prisoners with an opiate dependency achieve abstinence, with the opening of 7 abstinence-based Drug Recovery Wings. We are also recruiting dedicated staff in prisons to focus on tackling drugs, and supporting prisoners to engage with community treatment pre-release.