In March 2008, the Government commissioned a report (the Blakey Review) into the effectiveness of measures to disrupt the supply of drugs into prisons, and all ten of the report's recommendations have been accepted and work has begun to implement them. This report and the Government's response were published on 7 July 2008.
The data on the actions taken in 2007-08 against visitors suspected of smuggling drugs are given in the following table. The Ministry of Justice do not keep records of the number of social visitors. From a very indicative calculation we estimate this to be at least three million social visits annually.
Number Number of visitors: Suspected1 3,296 Banned as a result 2,687 Made subject to closed visits instead of a ban 414 Made subject to closed visits following a ban 1,638 Not banned and not made subject to closed visits 195 Arrested in connection with these incidents 424 1 Visitors are suspected of smuggling drugs in a number of ways, on a case by case basis. This can include prison or police intelligence concerning the visitor and/or the prisoner, drugs dog indications, drugs test results, suspicious behaviour or movements in the visits hall, or drugs being found in the possession of visitors during pre-entry searches.
The banning or placing on closed visits of a visitor is an administrative measure which can be imposed by a prison on the basis of suspicion but without the recovery of drugs. This level of suspicion would however be insufficient for a police arrest, which requires a higher standard of proof, often with the recovery of drugs.
Where drugs are recovered from visitors it is National Offender Management Service policy to refer the matter to the police.
These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. The data are not subject to audit.
Names of those to be tested each month are generated at random by a computer programme contained within the Local Inmate Data System.
Prisons are required to conduct all random tests from the random list. In a number of closely defined circumstances a prisoner may not be available for test. Prisons are then required, in order to meet the monthly testing target, to draw in strict order additional prisoners from a reserve list.