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11 Nov 2009 : Column 491W—continued
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These figures have been taken from table 8.5 of the annual volumes of Prison Statistics in England and Wales for the years 1997 to 2002 and tables 9.5 and 8.5 of Offender Management Caseload Statistics for the years between 2003 and 2008. Copies of these can be found in the House of Commons Library and from 2001 onwards at the following website:
Further breakdowns by category of offence can be found within the tables quoted. However, the statistics do not identify possession of a sharp instrument and this information could not be obtained without involving disproportionate cost.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Prisons: Drugs
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many of the recommendations of the Blakey Review into disrupting the supply of illegal drugs into prisons have been implemented fully; when he expects all recommendations to be fully implemented; and if he will make a statement. [294214]
Maria Eagle: Good progress has been made in implementing David Blakey's recommendations. The following recommendations have been fully implemented:
instructing every prison to nominate a senior manager responsible for delivering the local drug strategy at the prison (recommendation one);
publishing an updated good practice guide to assist prisons in tackling drug supply routes and a new guide on tackling mobile phones (recommendation two);
providing all prisons with a body orifice security scanner (BOSS chair) and hand held metal detectors, to detect internally concealed metallic items such as mobile phones (recommendation five);
strengthening the relationship with the Home Office Scientific Development Branch (recommendation eight); and
in the Good Practice Guide, placing more emphasis on working with others (recommendation nine).
In addition, work is in train:
to evaluate and roll-out static mobile phone blockers, subject to funding (recommendation four)-first phase in place, next phase to be completed by March 2010;
to determine whether search dogs are used effectively (recommendation six)-internal review completed, recommendations to be considered;
to encourage use of the Offender Management Act (recommendation seven)-ongoing, with key actions concluded by December 2009; and
to strengthen prison intelligence gathering (recommendation 10)-very much a continuous programme of work but with key elements in place by March 2010.
On recommendation three, rather than implement peer reviews as originally agreed, the Government have now decided to incorporate supply reduction and mandatory drug testing fully into the prisons audit process. This will provide a more robust framework to encourage good practice and will be in place by December 2009.
Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many instances of drug abuse were reported in each prison in England in the most recent period for which figures are available. [296430]
Maria Eagle: Mandatory drug testing (MDT) provides the best available measure of drug misuse in prisons. The following table provides the number of positive MDT tests, administered on both a random and targeted basis, at each prison during 2008-09.
These data have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing returns, the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. The data are not subject to audit. The number of positive tests does not equate to the number of prisoners who tested positive. It is possible that individual prisoners may test positive on more than one occasion.
| Number of samples testing positive for each prison in England between 1 April 2008 and 31 March 2009 | |
| Prison | Number of samples testing positive |
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