Prisons: Drugs

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost to his Department was of dispensing methadone prescriptions in prisons in England and Wales in each of the last five years. (300946)

I have been asked to reply.

This information is not held centrally. Since 2006, the national health service has been responsible for the commissioning of clinical services in prisons, including the administration of medicines. Individual budgetary costs are therefore the concern of local NHS primary care trusts (PCTs).

With the introduction of the Integrated Drug Treatment System (IDTS), methadone treatment for drug dependence has become increasingly available in prison. The purpose of IDTS is to bring improvements to the quality and volume of drug treatment in prisons. Since 2006, the Department of Health has allocated four waves of IDTS funding to NHS PCTs to implement enhanced prison clinical drug treatment: