Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by David Amess (Conservative) on Monday, 6 February 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 9 February 2006. It was answered by Fiona Mactaggart (Labour) on Thursday, 16 February 2006 on behalf of the Home Office.

Prisons

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners in (a) Chelmsford, (b) Coldingley, (c) Elmley and (d) Rochester prison have tested positive for drugs in each year since 1997.
Answer

[holding answer 8 February 2006]: There are three main types of drug testing in prisons: clinical; mandatory; and voluntary. Data on clinical and voluntary testing are not held centrally. The random mandatory drug testing programme is used to measure levels of drug misuse in prison. The random MDT figures are given in the following table:

Chelmsford Coldingley Elmley Rochester
Positive(Number) Percentage Positive(Number) Percentage Positive(Number) Percentage Positive(Number) Percentage
1996–97 114 34.2 150 36.2 158 20.9 21 5.3
1997–98 75 24.0 141 29.2 145 13.5 21 4.2
1998–99 93 23.1 29 13.7 116 11.8 18 4.2
1999–2000 47 24.5 37 12.2 105 13.7 14 3.0
2000–01 41 16.2 30 7.8 49 8.2 11 2.3
2001–02 56 16.0 50 11.7 78 11.9 11 3.7
2002–03 83 22.9 55 13.1 51 9.9 18 9.7
2003–04 87 25.7 76 16.6 74 11.7 22 9.3
2004–05 37 10.8 71 15.1 79 13.0 17 4.1
2005–06 27 10.3 72 18.6 26 5.4 18 4.8
(51) Year to date (April to December 2005).

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
50370; 442 c2354-6W;442 c2354-6W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Drugs Prisoners Prisons Testing HMP/YOI Chelmsford HMP Coldingley HMP Rochester HMP Elmley
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk