Key Facts

• The misuse of drugs is one of the biggest challenges faced by UK prisons.
• In 2018-19, 45% of female prisoners and 48% of male prisoners found it easy or very easy to get drugs in prison.
• In 2019-20, 10.5% of random mandatory drug tests were positive for traditional drugs; including psychoactive substances raises the rate to around 14%.
• There were almost 22,000 incidents of drug finds in prisons in England and Wales from April 2019 to March 2020, with an astonishing 182 kg of illicit drugs recovered.
• The Bill would add a generalised definition of psychoactive substances provided by the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 to the statute book.
• It allows testing for any and all psychoactive substances now and in the future.
• Drug-related deaths hit an all-time high this week.
• About a third of prisoners are in prison due to reasons connected with drug use, and 40% of them are there for drugs offences.
• Substance abuse treatment reduces reoffending by 44%, and the number of repeat offences is cut by about 33%.
• Between 60% and 90% of the prison population have used an NPS at some point, yet only 11% of prisoners in treatment had NPS use noted as one of their problems.
• Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 addresses Spice in prisons.
• Current test can identify only six elements within NPSs.
• Updating the test takes up to a year.
• Abbott Toxicology holds the prison testing contract.
• Psychoactive substances are often hidden on ordinary sheets of paper, making them harder to intercept.
• One A4-sized piece of paper soaked in PS can be worth £400 in a category A prison.
• The Bill proposes adopting a generic definition of psychoactive substances and creating an express statutory footing for prevalence testing.
• The Bill extends substance testing but faces criticism for inadequate current practice.
• Current budget for mandatory drug testing is £4.4 million.
• Prison Service drug testing procurement exercise is not scheduled to conclude until December 2021.
• Between 2014 and 2019, the proportion of people getting a drug habit in custody doubled.
• In 2015, Her Majesty’s inspectorate stated that psychoactive substances were the most serious threat to having a safe and secure prison system.
• The Mount Prison closed an effective treatment programme due to a massive influx of these psychoactive substances in 2016.
• The Bill aims to close loopholes in drug testing by allowing prisons to test for new psychoactive substances without amending laws individually.
• In the West Midlands, over 1,000 searches uncovered drugs, with HMP Featherstone seeing a significant increase from previous years.
• More than 14% of random mandatory drug tests in prisons were positive when including psychoactive substances.
• The proportion of inmates who developed a drug-related problem increased by 100% from 2014 to 2019.
• Almost 15% of the prison population now has a drug problem.
• There were almost 47,000 incidents of self-harm recorded in prisons in England and Wales in 2017-18.
• The Government is spending £100 million on boosting security to crack down on crime behind bars.
• A £2.5 billion prison building programme is underway with £156 million spent on maintenance this year.
• Richard Holden is making a brief final remark supporting the Prisons (Substance Testing) Bill.
• The Bill aims to help save lives in prisons by reducing drug use among inmates.
• The Bill has been read a Second time and committed to a Public Bill Committee.