Prisons: Drugs

Question

We publish the number of incidents where drugs are found in prisons in England and Wales in the HMPPS Annual Digest, the latest issues covering the period from April 2021 to March 2022. The table below provides the data on incidents of psychoactive substances, as a drug type, found in prisons from January 2020 to December 2020, as well as the previous and following 12-month periods.

Finds of psychoactive substances increased in the period of January 2020 to December 2020 compared to the previous 12-months but decreased in the following 12-months. These periods are not directly comparable, because changes in the day to day running of prisons during the Covid-19 pandemic are likely to have influenced these figures. An increase in the incident of finds in prisons may be as a result of more items being found, rather than more items being present in prisons.

Source: HMPPS Incident Reporting System

*(1) Secure training centres Rainsbrook and Oakhill report separately as they are contracted establishments and therefore data is not included in this dataset.

(2) Data includes HMPPS operated Immigration Removal Centres and during contracted out escorts.

(3) In the Psychoactive Substances Act (2016) “psychoactive substance” means any substance which is capable of producing a psychoactive effect in a person who consumes it, and is not an exempted substance. Exempted substances are: controlled drugs, medicinal products, alcohol or alcoholic products, nicotine, tobacco products, caffeine or caffeine products or any substance which is ordinarily consumed as food, and does not contain a prohibited ingredient.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2016/2/contents

(4) It is important to consider with incidents of finds in prisons, that an increase in numbers may be as a result of more items being found, although not necessarily attributable to any one particular security counter-measure, rather than more items being present in prisons.