HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has been too slow in responding to the ‘substantial, increasing and rapidly changing’ threats from illicit drugs in prisons, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO).
These threats include the rising prevalence of synthetic drugs and the use of drones to get drugs into the prison estate, says The costs of tackling drug harms in prisons, with around 40,000 prisoners in England and Wales now having an identified drug problem.
HMPPS had ‘significantly underspent’ on two investment programmes designed to reduce levels of drug harm, with the NAO recommending that security weaknesses be ‘addressed with more urgency’. HMPPS underspent on both its £100m security investment budget for 2019 to 2022 and the prison-based funding as part of the From harm to hope drug strategy. The prison services needs to improve information on prevalence to prioritise funding ‘where it is more effective’, the report stresses, alongside a renewed commitment to cross-government working – especially between HMPPS and health services.
The age, condition and design of many prisons make them vulnerable to drug smuggling, the report continues, while prison governors told the NAO how they lacked resources to properly tackle the issue – with security equipment such as x-ray scanners remaining broken for months, and work to make windows drone-proof sometimes taking years. The government committed £40m funding for security in high-risk prisons in 2025-26, including window grilles and netting, with drone sightings increasing by 750 per cent between 2019 and 2023.
In 2024-25 a quarter of prisoners waited more than three weeks for NHS England to conduct a triage health assessment following reception screening, with 35 per cent of the 160,000 substance misuse appointments for that year recorded as ‘did not attends’. NHS England needs to strengthen commissioning of drug services by refocusing health needs assessments to reflect differing prison needs, the report states, as well as introducing costed KPIs to ensure providers are delivering value for money.
There were 52,401 adults in alcohol and drug treatment in prisons and secure settings in the year to March 2025, according to the latest figures – 5 per cent up on the previous year. The proportion of adults successfully starting community treatment within three weeks of release was 57 per cent, the highest level recorded and 27 per cent up on a decade ago.
The NAO document is the latest in a series of damning reports on the prison system. Last year reports from the House of Commons Justice Committee warned that overcrowding, staff shortages and a deteriorating infrastructure were having a ‘profound impact’ on the ability to deliver rehabilitation’, and that the drug crisis was now at ‘endemic levels’ – with a ‘dangerous culture of acceptance that must be broken’.
‘The proliferation of illicit drugs in prisons undermines rehabilitation, damages health, and destabilises prison environments,’ said NAO head Gareth Davies. ‘Yet too many of the basic controls and interventions are not being done well enough – from repairing critical security equipment to aligning health and operational priorities. Our recommendations are designed to help the prison and health services direct resources to where they can have the greatest impact on this serious problem.’
This report laid bare the ‘scale of drug harm in our prisons and the devastating cost of failing to address it properly,’ said WithYou’s national criminal justice lead Karen Ratcliff. ‘We cannot address prison drug harm through security alone. Restricting supply must go hand-in-hand with high-quality, trauma-informed drug treatment and recovery support. Better partnership between health and justice is critical, as is continuity of care. We need urgent investment, strong partnerships, and a renewed commitment to seeing people in prison as human beings who deserve the chance to recover.’
Collective Voice supported the report’s recommendations but said they were neither a new identification of the problems or the proposed solutions, echoing similar recommendations by Dame Carol Black, the justice select committee and others. ‘Given these repeated calls for change we need more action than the government has promised so far,’ said chief executive Will Haydock. ‘We look forward to seeing how the government responds to these latest recommendations and working with them to help more people make positive changes in their lives. The situation could not be more urgent.’
The report only confirmed ‘what we and others have been saying for a long time – despite rising drug markets and consumption, the responses have been insufficient to reduce either supply or demand’, added Forward Trust CEO Mike Trace. ‘The British public also wants to see better support for people with addiction while they are in prison. Independent research commissioned by The Forward Trust revealed the overwhelming support [87 per cent] among UK adults who believe that that people found guilty of a crime should receive a programme of treatment (rehabilitation) for their addiction problems whilst in prison. It is unacceptable that so many prisoners with drug or alcohol problems are not offered meaningful opportunities for rehabilitation’.
The costs of tackling drug harms in prisons available here
Alcohol and drug treatment in secure settings 2024 to 2025 available here