Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 26 June 2023 to Question 190334, whether he has made an estimate of the number of (a) prison officers and (b) other prison staff who have been (i) investigated, (ii) arrested and (iii) charged in relation to the supply of drugs in prisons in each of the last six months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. A minority of staff engage in corrupt activity.
HM Prison & Probation Service has a zero-tolerance policy to drugs conveyed into prisons and take appropriate action to a small number of prison staff who break the rules. Our £100m Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones, is ongoing. This includes increased resource to pursue corruption, as well as established a new ‘Prevent’ function, aimed at building staff resilience against corruption.
Below is a table showing the breakdown of staff investigated from July 23 to Dec 2023 relating to the conveyance of drugs.
Table 1
Month | Cases where Officer Investigated | Cases where Non-Officer Investigated |
TOTAL | 104 | 42 |
Jul | 20 | 8 |
Aug | 19 | 7 |
Sep | 18 | 7 |
Oct | 19 | 7 |
Nov | 23 | 7 |
Dec | 5 | 6 |
Below is a table showing the breakdown of staff arrested from 2019 to Dec 2023 to date relating to the conveyance of drugs.
Table 2
Month | Cases where Officer Arrested | Cases where Non-Officer Arrested |
TOTAL | 12 | 7 |
Jul | 3 | 1 |
Aug | 1 | 1 |
Sep | 2 | 3 |
Oct | 3 | 1 |
Nov | 1 | - |
Dec | 2 | 1 |
Below is a table showing the breakdown of staff charged from 2019 to Dec 2023 to date relating to the conveyance of drugs.
Table 3
Month | Cases where Officer Charged* | Cases where Non-Officer Charged* |
TOTAL | 1 | 2 |
Jul | - | - |
Aug | - | - |
Sep | - | 1 |
Oct | 1 | - |
Nov | - | - |
Dec | - | 1 |
Source: Linkspace Case Management System.
Notes:
Linkspace is the Counter Corruption Unit’s (CCU) Case Management System used to record and track cases linked to corruption.
Data provided by the Counter Corruption (CCU) have the following Caveats applied below;
1) The new Counter Corruption Unit came into being in April 2019, with a new structure and a change to ways of working. During the initial transition period, and prior to the introduction of the new Case Management System, it is possible that not all arrests were being captured.
2) Prior to April 2019, corruption in HMPPS was managed by the Corruption Prevention Unit
(CPU). The CPU was a largely centralised unit focused on sanitising and disseminating all
corruption related intelligence to the Police, with an individual Regional Corruption
Prevention Manager (RCPM) in each geographical region offering advice and support to
prisons in managing corruption, Hence data prior to April 2019 is not available.
3) Data includes Non-Directly Employed Staff (public or private) as they provide a service on behalf of HMPPS.
4) Officers ‘charged*’ is not an assured metric, the data below is likely very underrepresented given it is substantially lower than our CJS outcomes i.e., CJS sentences, court fines, conditional discharges etc over this period.
5) The Investigations data is all operations opened on linkspace that relate to conveyance of drugs, for officers and non-officers. Some investigations are based off limited intelligence and many are unproven.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many random mandatory drug tests were carried out in prisons in each year between 2019 and 2023 inclusive.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data relating to random mandatory drug tests is published online in the HMPPS Annual Digest. The table below provides the total number of tests in each year between 2019 and 2023 inclusive.
Number of random mandatory drug tests in England and Wales April 2018 - March 2023 | |||||
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| April 2018 - March 2019 | April 2019 - March 2020 | April 2020 - March 2021 | April 2021 - March 2022 | April 2022 - March 2023 |
Number of tests | 54,242 | 54,047 | 4,738 | 12,396 | 41,308 |
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Source: Contracted MDT testing laboratory |
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From March 2020 to April 2021 rMDT target levels were suspended due to the Covid-19 restrictions placed upon prison regimes. The increase in testing levels during March 2022 to March 2023 is associated with the re-introduction of the target levels and changes in regime following the pandemic.
Data Sources and Quality |
Care is taken when processing and analysing returns but the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although shown to the last case, the figures may not be accurate to that level. |
This does not include tests that were spoilt or lost in transit on the way to the laboratory. |
Please see below the links to the annual digests from each year:
2018/2019: HMPPS Annual Digest 2018 to 2019 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
2019/2020: HMPPS Annual Digest: April 2019 to March 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
2020/2021: HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2020 to March 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
2021/2022: HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2021 to March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
2022/2023: HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2022 to March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Data for April to December 2023 is not included because it is subject to future publication as part of the 2023-24 Annual Digest.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department (a) collects and (b) publishes on levels of drug use by prisoners in the prison estate.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data is collected on mandatory drug testing, including Random Mandatory Drug Testing (rMDT), targeted testing, and voluntary drug testing of prisoners. rMDT data is published in the HMPPS Annual Digest.
All random mandatory drug testing (rMDT) was paused in March 2020 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Low levels of testing resumed from September 2020 in line with establishments’ position within the National Framework for managing COVID-19 before formal performance expectations around rMDT volumes were re-instated in April 2022.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 32 of his Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, what his planned timetable is for when random mandatory drug testing will return to the levels required to estimate national drug use in prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
All random mandatory drug testing (rMDT) in prisons were paused in March 2020 following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Low levels of testing resumed from September 2020 in line with the National Framework for managing COVID-19. rMDT levels have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels due to operational and staffing pressures in prisons. We will keep performance under close review.
Prisons continue to have a zero-tolerance culture, and any prisoner suspected of taking illicit substances can still be subjected to a mandatory drug test. As part of the ambitious cross-Government Drug Strategy, we are rolling out a range of interventions to support prisoners off drugs and into recovery, such as doubling the number of Incentivised Substance-Free Living wings, and supporting prisoners to engage with community treatment pre-release.
We are also committed to tackling the supply of drugs into prison and our £100m Security Investment Programme delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners, resulting in full coverage across the closed male estate. 84 X-ray baggage scanners have also been installed at 45 prisons and 4 learning centres, building on the rollout of our body scanners, drug trace detection machines and metal detection archways.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 32 of his Department's Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, for what reason the mandatory drug testing panel wasn't updated in 2022-23.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Mandatory Drug Testing (MDT) panel is updated when a new drug type is known to be prevalent within the prison estate, or where a new drug poses a significant threat to the safety and security of prison regimes.
For the panel to be updated, HMPPS’s contracted drug testing supplier must have the technical capability to accurately test urine samples to obtain results to an evidential standard. Whilst new additions to the MDT panel were identified during 2022/23, preparatory technical work to add these compounds to the panel was not completed within the 2022/23 financial year. These substances have now been added to the MDT panel.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce concerns about violence and personal safety for prison officers and prisoners in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The safety of staff and prisoners is a key priority, and we continue our efforts to address the levels of violence in prison.
We are equipping our staff with the right tools and training to maintain safety in our prisons. We have rolled out a new Body Worn Video Camera system and we are rolling out PAVA – a synthetic pepper spray – in the adult male estate alongside SPEAR, a personal safety training package.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 doubled the maximum penalty to up to two years’ imprisonment for those who assault emergency workers, including prison officers.
We continue to support prisoners at risk of violence to move away from violent behaviours and we are delivering a £100m Security Investment Programme to disrupt smuggling of illicit items such as drugs and weapons that can fuel prison violence.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many illegal drugs have been seized (a) since the £100 million funding for prison x ray scanners was completed in 2020 and (b) in the comparable time period before that funding was allocated.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Delivery of the £100m Security Investment Programme was completed in March 2022 and included measures to prevent the smuggling of illicit items, such as drugs, into prisons. Under this investment, 75 additional X-ray body scanners were deployed, resulting in full coverage of the entire closed adult male prison estate. Between July 2020 and October 2022 there were approximately 28,000 positive indications on these X-ray body scanners.
The number of incidents where drugs are found in prisons in England and Wales is published in the HMPPS Annual Digest through the incidents data tool. Between April 2020 and March 2022, there were 37,995 drug find incidents in prisons in England and Wales. In comparison, between April 2018 and March 2020, there were 39,900 drug find incidents in prisons in England and Wales.
This reports the number of drug find incidents rather than the amount of drugs found, and incidents can include different quantities of drugs. It is important to consider with incidents of drug finds in prisons, that an increase in numbers may be as a result of more items being found, rather than more items being present in prisons.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the number of hours each day that body scanners for (a) prison staff and (b) prisoners entering prisons in England and Wales are operated by staff in the last 12 months.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Data on the number of hours x-ray body scanners are operated by staff in prisons is not recorded.
HMPPS currently scan adult male prisoners on an intelligence or reasonable suspicion-led basis. It does not have legal permission to use x-ray body scanners on staff working in prisons.
Our £100 million security investment programme to reduce crime inside prisons, including stemming the flow of illicit items such as drugs, mobile phones, and weapons, was completed in March 2022. Enhanced gate security—including 659 staff, 154 drug dogs and over 200 pieces of equipment—has been deployed to 42 high-risk prison sites that routinely search staff and visitors. We now have 97 X-ray body scanners covering the entire closed male estate and they have recorded more than 28,000 positive indications helping to tackle the supply of drugs and mobile phones into prisons.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has plans to (a) review the effectiveness of substance free living units and (b) make an assessment of the potential merits of extending those units across all prison estates.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the ambitious cross-Government Drug Strategy, we are rolling out a range of interventions to support prisoners off drugs and into recovery. This includes expanding the number of Incentivised Substance-Free Living Units where prisoners commit to remaining free of illicit drugs, with regular drug testing and incentives. We now have over 60 of these wings across the estate, and are aiming to reach up to 100 by March 2025. This will dramatically expand the number of prisoners who have access to these wings. Alongside this we are working to evaluate ISFLs to improve our understanding of the impact they are having and the experience of prisoners on these wings.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the volume of illegal drugs found in prisons between (a) 2013 and 2017 and (b) 2018 and 2022.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The number of incidents where drugs are found in prisons in England and Wales is published in the HMPPS Annual Digest through the incidents data tool.
a) Between 2013 and 2017, there were 41,354 drug find incidents in prisons in England and Wales.
b) Between 2018 and 2022. There were 92,130 drug find incidents in prisons in England and Wales.
It is important to consider with incidents of drug finds in prisons, that an increase in numbers may be as a result of more items being found, rather than more items being present in prisons.
Delivery of the £100m Security Investment Programme was completed in March 2022 and included measures to prevent the smuggling of illicit items such as drugs into prisons. The Investment included deployment of Enhanced Gate Security at 42 high-risk sites and 75 additional X-ray body scanners, giving full coverage across the closed adult male prison estate.