Prisoners (Drugs)

Mr. Cox
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many inmates in prisons in England and Wales have a record of illegal drug taking. [82289]

Mr. George Howarth
Between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 1998, 88,304 mandatory drug tests were conducted on prisoners, of which 20,152 tested positive for drugs. The figures include some prisoners who will have been tested more than once. Implementation of the Prison Service drug strategy over the next three years will include provision of information about new prisoners' histories of drug misuse prior to arrival in prison.

Mr. Cox
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisons in England and Wales have drug treatment facilities; and how many prisoners were undertaking such treatment on 1 April. [82290]

Mr. George Howarth
Systematic data about existing programmes and the number of participating prisoners is not yet collected centrally. The table gives the best available information about the current situation and the proposed outcome of implementation of the Prison Service's drug strategy. ---------------------------
|Service provision        |
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|CARATs1                  |
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|Detoxification2          |
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|Rehabilitation programmes|
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|Therapeutic communities  |
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|Voluntary testing        |
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