§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners(a) are known to have taken illegal drugs and (b) have tested positive at a later date in each of the last three years; and what percentage the latter represents. [10667]
§ Beverley HughesInformation on the use of illegal drugs in Prison Service establishments is provided by the random Mandatory Drug Testing (MDT) programme. Information as to how many prisoners tested positive more than once is not held centrally.
The table sets out the number of random MDT samples which tested positive over the last three full financial years and for this year to 31 August.
Year Number of positive random MDT results Total number of random MDT tests 1998–1999 11,552 63,209 1999–2000 7,682 54,013 2000–01 6,383 51,474 2001–021 2,594 21,875 1 Year to 31 August 2001.