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Home Office;Prison Service

Answer

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list (a) the number of prisoners tested for drugs each month since March by individual establishment and (b) the number of prisoners who have tested positive for each type of drug, in each month since March by individual establishment. [5671] Miss Widdecombe: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given. Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. George Howarth, Dated 29 November 1996: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the numbers of prisoners tested for drugs each month since March by individual establishment and (b) the number of prisoners who have tested positive for each type of drug, in each month since March by individual establishment. The figures requested are given in the accompanying tables, copies of which have been placed in the Library. Table A sets out the numbers tested in each establishment each month between March and September. Data for October is provisional. Table B gives the percentage of samples which have tested positive for each type of drug in each month between March and September by individual establishment. Percentages rather than numbers positive are given as this is a more meaningful indicator. Accordingly, the mandatory drug testing database is configured to produce reports in this format. Conversion of the percentages into figures could only be done at disproportionate cost. The data in both tables is for drug tests undertaken under all forms of Drug Strategy testing. These comprise the random, on suspicion, risk assessment, frequent testing and on reception types of mandatory drug tests, and voluntary testing. Since forms of targeted testing of drug misusers are included in these figures and because multiple drug positives from single sample have all been counted, the figures in table B indicate higher levels of drug misuse than those for random mandatory drug testing previously published in Hansard.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

5671; 286 c445W;286 c443W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Drugs Prisoners Prisons Misuse Testing

Contains statistics

Yes