Written question asked by Humfrey Malins (Conservative) on Monday, 11 January 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 14 January 2010. It was answered by Maria Eagle (Labour) on Thursday, 14 January 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prisons: Drugs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of staff at adult prisons are searched for illegal substances on arrival at work.

Answer: To provide the information requested would involve collating information from all prisons in the adult estate which could be done only at disproportionate cost.The National Offender Management Service's (NOMS) policy requires that in all prisons, procedures are in place for the searching of prisoners, staff, domestic, official and professional visitors and contractors, which are capable of detecting all items of contraband, including illegal substances. These arrangements must be set out as part of a written local security strategy agreed with the regional manager.While the searching of staff will be carried out in all prisons on entry, the level and frequency of such searching at individual prisons is determined by local security and control needs and is set out in each prison's local searching strategy.In the majority of prisons this will mean a programme of routine searches of staff in addition to searches based on suspicion or on receipt of intelligence. In some prisons, particularly some open prisons, a better use of resources may be achieved by carrying out only targeted, intelligence-led or random search programmes.

Secondary information