HC Deb 09 November 1992 vol 213 cc631-2W
Ms. Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to improve prison officers' training in dealing with drugs problems.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Training in the care and treatment of drug misusers has been available for the last two years through the sponsorship of courses at Ruskin college Oxford and we are extending this provision this year to a specialist course designed specifically for prison staff of all disciplines. In addition a series of seminars have been introduced to familiarise staff with the Guidelines on the Throughcare of Drug Misusers published in 1991. An increasing number of health care staff now hold nursing qualifications and we have given priority to providing funding to enable nursing staff to attend professional courses on drug and alcohol dependency nursing.

Provision has also been made for prison medical officers to undertake professional training in the treatment of addictive behaviour.

Ms. Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out his plans for tackling the problem of drug dealing and drug abuse in prisons; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Peter Lloyd

We have developed a wide range of measures for tackling drug dealing in prisons. These include the routine searching of prisoners (including those returning from home leave), their cells and other areas. Prisoners and their visitors will also be searched if there is reason to believe that they may have drugs in their possession. Visitors' hand luggage is routinely searched. The police are called in if intelligence suggests that a particular visitor intends to smuggle drugs in to a prison. We have increased the number of prison dogs trained to detect drugs. And the Prison Service College have produced a drugs training package, which has been sent to all prisons, to help staff detect and identify drugs that find their way into prisons.

Guidelines on the throughcare of drugs misusers were first published in 1987 and revised and republised in 1991 in the form of circular instruction 12/1991. In addition a multidisciplinary resource manual entitled "Caring for Drug users" was compiled and published last year. Copies of both these documents are available in the Library. The guidelines provide for all prisons to have in place effective arrangements for identifying drug users and providing clinical care and detoxification programmes where necessary. Prisons are also encouraged to make full use of community drug agencies to provide counselling and preventative training; to ensure that drug users are given every possible opportunity to identify themselves; and to ensure that, where necessary, contact is maintained with community based drug agencies following discharge.