Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the statistical trends set out in the Answer of 11 January 2016 to Question 20933, what plans he has to tackle drug use in prison.

Andrew Selous

We take a zero tolerance approach to drugs in prison in England and Wales. We recently introduced tough new laws which will see those who smuggle packages over prison walls, including new psychoactive substances, face up to two years in prison. Those who involve themselves in the distribution of drugs in our prisons should know that they could face prosecution and extra time behind bars.

We have a comprehensive range of security measures and searching techniques in place to detect drugs, and to prevent smuggling into prisons. We are also piloting the use of body scanners to reveal drugs concealed within the body. If successful, we will use these to complement existing tactics to prevent the smuggling of illicit drugs.

In addition, there is a wide-ranging programme of work being undertaken by NOMS and its partners to tackle the use of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), which we know are having a particularly destructive effect in prisons. This includes legislation to control the supply, possession and conveyance of any NPS into a prison. We have also trained more than 300 dogs to specifically detect NPS as well as piloting mandatory drug testing of prisoners for psychoactive substances in 34 prisons. We are evaluating the effect of the test and will continue to monitor prisoner drug use so that we can continue to support meaningful interventions and provide an effective testing regime.

We are also working with the Department of Health and others to improve our understanding of the risks NPS present for offenders and to provide appropriate information, guidance and support to offenders and those working with them in prison.