Written question asked by Philip Davies (Conservative) on Wednesday, 3 February 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 5 February 2010. It was answered by Maria Eagle (Labour) on Wednesday, 10 February 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prisons: Dogs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the outcome was of the national strategic review of the deployment of sniffer dogs throughout the prison estate.

Answer: In his report 'Disrupting the supply of illicit drugs into prisons' David Blakey recommended that the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) establish an internal review to determine whether drug detection dogs and their handlers are distributed effectively around the prison estate, and that the management processes for handlers are robust. The Government accepted this and all of David Blakey's other recommendations.NOMS has now undertaken a review of the distribution and management of drug detection dogs. Further work is ongoing.

Secondary information