To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the impact of a switch from soft to hard drugs testing on positive mandatory drug testing rates in prisons; and if he will make a statement. (132974)

The standard group of drugs covered by mandatory drug testing in prisons remains as it was when the programme was introduced in 1995. There has been no switch from soft to hard drugs testing.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the accuracy of mandatory drug testing exercises within prison establishments as a measure of the extent of drug usage in prisons; and if he will make a statement. (132977)

The mandatory drug testing programme provides the best measure of the level of drug misuse. Research conducted by the Office for National Statistics published in January 2005 found that mandatory drug testing provides a good indication of patterns and levels of drug misuse over time particularly at a national and regional level or prison category type.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons there is no key performance target for targeted mandatory drug tests for prison establishments; and if he will make a statement. (132985)

All prisons carry out targeted mandatory drug tests. In order to allow prisons to target testing flexibly to meet local circumstances no key performance target has been set.