Written question asked by Andrew Snowden (Conservative) on Thursday, 4 September 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 September 2025. It was answered by Jake Richards (Labour) on Friday, 12 September 2025 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prisons: Drugs

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of automatically transferring prisoners in open prisons who fail drugs tests to Category C prisons.

Answer: Prisoners held in open conditions can be re-categorised to higher security conditions at any time if their risk increases, if there is a material change in circumstances that impacts security risk, or information (including existing information not considered before) is identified that indicates that the prisoner cannot safely be managed in the current security conditions. The purpose of categorisation is to ensure that those sentenced to custody are assigned the lowest security category appropriate to managing their risk.

Secondary information