§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the number of registered drug addicts in prisons in England and Wales on 1 November.
§ Mr. MellorThere is no system of registration of addicts. The number of addicts in prison service establishments at any one time is not known. During 1988, 1,644 addicts were notified to the chief medical officer at the Home Office by prison medical officers in the United Kingdom. An addict may be notified more than once during a year and counting addicts at their first notification in 1988, 1,311 were first notified by prison medical officers, as shown in table 10a of Home Office Statistical Bulletin Issue 13/89, "Statistics of Drug Addicts Notified to the Home Office, United Kingdom, 1988", a copy of which is in the Library.