HMPPS is committed to reducing the supply and demand of drugs in prisons, delivering a high-quality treatment and recovery system, and reducing the harms drugs cause, including working closely with the privately managed HMP/YOI Parc. The following steps are being taken to help reduce drug use in prisons in Wales:

Restricting the supply of drugs:

• Increasing investments in prison security, including introducing airport-style gate security to identify items such as drugs before they are conveyed into prisons as well as X-ray body scanners to find internally concealed items and x-ray baggage.

• Increasing the number of drug trace detection machines, helping prevent the smuggling of illegal drugs, including through the mail.

• Increasing the number and availability of specialist staff, drugs dogs and security equipment to help identify illicit substances at the first possible opportunity available across all sites.

• Mandatory Drug tests in line with national guidance.

• A Crime in Prisons initiative to support the prosecution of those involved in the trafficking of illicit substances.

• Preventing and pursuing incidents of staff corruption.

Reducing the demand for drugs:

• Increasing opportunity for purposeful activities in prison to reduce boredom and in turn the temptation to engage in illicit substances through education and employment.

• Providing opportunities for prisoners to rehabilitate and resettle positively on release through meaningful employment, appropriate housing, mental health support.

Building recovery and reducing harm from drugs:

• Providing opportunities for individuals to engage in Psychosocial Interventions to reduce substance misuse.

• Providing all suitable individuals with appropriate clinical interventions for substance misuse. In Wales, this includes Buvidal which is a long-acting buprenorphine to treat dependence on opioids.

• Providing Naloxone upon release, alongside associated training, to help prevent accidental overdose incidents.

• Providing harm reduction advice about safer substance use and preventing blood borne viruses.

• Providing individuals in all Welsh prisons with the opportunity to live on an incentivised substance-free living wing designed to support people to lead a substance-free life.

• Exploring options for opening a drug recovery wing in HMP Berwyn to support those misusing opiates to abstain from drugs. Two drug recovery units have already been established at HMP/YOI Parc.

• Providing 24/7 support to prisoners via peer mentors and staff.

• Providing continuity of care through the gate care via collaborative working with agencies such as Dyfodol, NHS and Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous.

This question has been interpreted as the number of self-harm incidents and the number of individuals who self-harm. The data shows the number of self-harm incidents and individuals in HMPs Cardiff and Parc in each of the three financial years (the PQ didn’t specify a time period, so have used the latest three years).

Our most recent Safety in Custody statistics show that levels of self-harm in Welsh prisons are comparable with the national picture. These figures are published online every quarter, and are broken down by individual prisons to measure trends in specific area, as well as across the whole of England and Wales. There is a piece of work underway in Wales to identify the drivers of self-harm, regionally and at establishment level. Similar work is being done at a national level looking across all prisons.

Too many people self-harm in prisons and we are taking action to stop it. We are investing £100 million in security measures to tackle the drugs, weapons and mobile phones that fuel violence and self-harm behind bars – this is on top of the £70 million we have already spent improving safety and conditions. We have recruited more than 4,300 new prison officers and introduced the keyworker model - so every inmate can have a dedicated officer for support.

We’ve also given the Samaritans £1.5 million over three years, trained more than 24,000 staff in mental health awareness, and improved support for anyone at risk of suicide or self-harm.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The definitions of concerted indiscipline and assaults are:

Concerted indiscipline: the number of incidents in which two or more prisoners act together in defiance of a lawful instruction or against the requirements of the regime of the establishment. The act of indiscipline can be active or passive (i.e. involving aggression and violence or not) and the protagonists do not necessarily need to be acting in a common cause.

Assaults: refer to unwanted physical contact between two or more individuals, excluding lawful use of force by staff (but including where staff are assaulted during use of force) or anything of a purely verbal or threatening nature.

Assaults in prison custody cover a wide range of violent incidents including fights between prisoners.

Serious assaults are those which involve one or more of the following: a sexual assault, results in detention in outside hospital as an in-patient, requires medical treatment for concussion or internal injuries. It also includes incurring any of the following injuries: a fracture, scald or burn, stabbing, crushing, extensive or multiple bruising, black eye, broken nose, lost or broken tooth, cuts requiring suturing, bites, temporary or permanent blindness.

We do not tolerate violence or disruptive behaviour in our prisons. We’ve recruited 4,366 additional officers and are spending an extra £100m, introducing tough airport-style security, x-ray scanners and phone-blocking technology. We are also committed to ensuring our prison officers have the tools they need to do the job safely with body worn cameras, ‘police-style’ handcuffs and restraints, and PAVA incapacitant spray.

The below table indicates non white (includes prisoners with ‘not stated’ and ‘not recorded’ ethnicities) prisoners in HMPs Cardiff and Parc with an associated court outside of Wales (includes prisoners with ‘Court not recorded’).

We have increased prison officers’ salaries in the public sector by over 2% across the board. The public and private systems are separate, and both produce excellent outcomes in some circumstances for prisoners.

What assessment has the prisons Minister made of the discrepancy between the starting salaries and pay scales for prison officers employed by Parc Prison in Bridgend, which is run by G4S, and those for officers employed by the Government-run HMPs in Swansea and Cardiff?

Detached duty is a regular and normal part of prison resourcing. It allows staff to be allocated from prisons with the capacity to provide them, to those where additional staffing is required to enable the delivery of a safe, decent, secure and predictable regime.

Staffing shortages is not the sole driver of detached duty or indeed the trigger for it to be used. Many establishments have what could be described as staffing shortages or vacancies, but through the use of ‘Regime Management Planning’ these shortages are managed to ensure an acceptable level of regime delivery.

HMP Swansea, HMP Cardiff, HMP Parc and HMP Usk/Prescoed have not received any staff from prisons in England on detached duty in the last 12 months. HMP Berwyn has not received any staff from prisons in England on detached duty since opening.

The information requested is not collected.

Detached duty is a regular and normal part of prison resourcing. It allows staff to be allocated from prisons with the capacity to provide them, to those where additional staffing is required to enable the delivery of a safe, decent, secure and predictable regime.

Staffing shortages is not the sole driver of detached duty or indeed the trigger for it to be used. Many establishments have what could be described as staffing shortages or vacancies, but through the use of ‘Regime Management Planning’ these shortages are managed to ensure an acceptable level of regime delivery.

The information requested is not collected.

Detached duty is a regular and normal part of prison resourcing. It allows staff to be allocated from prisons with the capacity to provide them, to those where additional staffing is required to enable the delivery of a safe, decent, secure and predictable regime.

Staffing shortages is not the sole driver of detached duty or indeed the trigger for it to be used. Many establishments have what could be described as staffing shortages or vacancies, but through the use of ‘Regime Management Planning’ these shortages are managed to ensure an acceptable level of regime delivery.

The information requested is not collected.

Detached duty is a regular and normal part of prison resourcing. It allows staff to be allocated from prisons with the capacity to provide them, to those where additional staffing is required to enable the delivery of a safe, decent, secure and predictable regime.

Staffing shortages is not the sole driver of detached duty or indeed the trigger for it to be used. Many establishments have what could be described as staffing shortages or vacancies, but through the use of ‘Regime Management Planning’ these shortages are managed to ensure an acceptable level of regime delivery.

The information requested is not collected.

Detached duty is a regular and normal part of prison resourcing. It allows staff to be allocated from prisons with the capacity to provide them, to those where additional staffing is required to enable the delivery of a safe, decent, secure and predictable regime.

Staffing shortages is not the sole driver of detached duty or indeed the trigger for it to be used. Many establishments have what could be described as staffing shortages or vacancies, but through the use of ‘Regime Management Planning’ these shortages are managed to ensure an acceptable level of regime delivery.

As of 30 June 2017, the number of category C prisoners at HM Prison and Young Offender Institutions Cardiff, Parc and Swansea were 440, 1,173 and 247 respectively.

As at 31 March 2017, there were 3,528 prisoners serving a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP). Of these, 542 were pre-tariff and 2,985 were post-tariff.

Data concerning IPP prisoners is published in the quarterly offender management statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly

Table 1 shows the number of prisoners serving IPP sentences at prisons in Wales. This is also broken down to show the number of prisoners serving IPP sentences in HMP Cardiff and HMP Parc.

HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and the Parole Board will continue to work together to improve the progression of IPP prisoners. This group continue to achieve release in high numbers, with 576 first time IPP releases in 2016, the highest figure since the sentence was introduced.

We are investing £1.3bn to build up to 10,000 new prison places which will replace places in ageing and ineffective prisons, providing buildings fit for today’s demands and able to support effective rehabilitation.

On 22 March we announced plans to build four new prisons in Yorkshire, Wigan, South Wales and Rochester. No decisions have been made about HMPYOI Cardiff and Swansea.

Statistics for assaults on staff by prison are published on an annual basis by calendar year in the Safety in Custody statistics bulletin annual assaults tables (see table 3.15 at the link below). https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/495430/safety-in-custody-assaults-dec-2014.xls.

Statistics for assaults on prisoner on prisoner are published on an annual basis by calendar year in the Safety in Custody statistics bulletin annual assaults tables (see table 3.15 at the link below). https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/495430/safety-in-custody-assaults-dec-2014.xls. Figures for 2015 are due for publication on 28 April 2016.

This information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.