§ 4. Mr. Richard Allan (Sheffield, Hallam)What estimate he has made of the number of prisoners who have (i) drug and (ii) mental health problems. [40266]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Ms Joyce Quin)Research undertaken for the Prison Service by the Institute of Psychiatry suggests that around 28,000 prisoners, including those on remand, have drug and mental health problems of some kind. Those studies were carried out some time ago, however, and the Office for National Statistics has been commissioned to carry out a new survey of the prevalence of mental disorder in the prison population of England and Wales. My hon. Friend 4 the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Knowsley, North and Sefton, East (Mr. Howarth), will announce further initiatives on tackling drugs in prisons.
§ Mr. AllanDoes the Minister share the concern of the chief inspector of prisons about the number of mentally disordered offenders who are inappropriately held in prison? Does she agree that the way in which to tackle that is to consider the point at which individuals are taken into custody? Have the Government any plans to improve the training of custody sergeants and, in particular, their liaison with national health service psychiatric services?
§ Ms QuinThe hon. Gentleman makes an important point about trying to divert from the prison system people who would be inappropriately held. We are considering the kind of measures that he mentioned, but the number of people who have been transferred from the Prison Service to mental health establishments of various kinds has risen markedly, particularly over the past year. That is encouraging: we seem at least to be starting to tackle the problem, although I certainly agree that we can do a lot more.
§ Mr. Martin Linton (Battersea)Has my hon. Friend seen the latest Home Office research figures showing that half the people arrested for shoplifting, and a quarter of car thieves, tested positive for heroin? Will she ensure that, in order to test increasing anecdotal evidence that many people start taking drugs while in prison, the next Home Office research includes not only those who are arrested, but those who leave prison?
§ Ms QuinExisting research does not back up claims that more people leave prison with a drug addiction than enter prison with one. It is rather the opposite, although the figures are not nearly as low as we would like. However, my hon. Friend makes an important point about the number of arrestees who test positive for drugs. That is one reason why the drug treatment and testing order included in the Crime and Disorder Bill is so important.
§ Sir Brian Mawhinney (North-West Cambridgeshire)The Minister knows that, like her, I have been visiting prisons up and down the country. Is she aware that governors have been telling me that up to 40 per cent.—or perhaps more—of the prisoners in their prisons are on drugs, and that most of those drugs are brought in by visitors? Many governors tell me that they do not have the resources to create an adequate barrier against the inflow of the drugs—[Interruption.] Perhaps the Minister would like me to wait until the Home Secretary finishes briefing her before I complete my question.
If the Government do not want to be seen as complacent, will the Minister give an undertaking that every prison in the country will have enough resources for one proactive and one passive drug dog to fight the insidious inflow of drugs?
§ Ms QuinI think I can answer a question without the right hon. Gentleman's patronising comments. As he pointed out, I have visited a large number of prisons, where I, too, have discussed with governors and prison staff the issues that he has raised. There are 168 active dogs in prisons and 26 passive dogs, which are 5 particularly good at detecting drugs brought in by visitors. Some of those dogs are used for clusters of prisons, where two or three prisons are situated close together. We are continuing—and, I believe, making more effective—the prison drugs strategy started by his Government. As I said earlier, further announcements will be made about that in due course.