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<p>Between January 2021 and December 2021, a total of 2,273 incidents of self-harm
were recorded that were linked to overdoses.</p><p>The total figure for January 2022
to December 2022 was 2,387 incidents linked to overdoses. Please see the accompanying
table.</p><p>The data has been produced on a calendar basis to match published figures
on method of self-harm. Information is reported for calendar rather than financial
years to avoid the risk of identifying individuals in combination with published calendar
year breakdowns of self-harm data.</p><p>We do not explicitly collect data on an “overdose”
incident type. The data we have provided is based on the “self-harm” incident type.
In particular, the data is based on self-harm categorised as “Self-Poisoning/Overdose/Substances/Swallowing”
and subcategorised as “illegal drugs”, “own persons medicine” or “other persons medicine”.</p><p>The
data provided is based on two main assumptions:</p><ul><li>Incidents relate to the
consumption of substances, including illegal drugs and prescription medication.</li><li>Incidents
were judged by staff to be incidents of self-harm, i.e. where a prisoner deliberately
harmed themselves.</li></ul><p>There will be other incidents involving the consumption
of substances that are not included as they were not reported as self-harm by the
prison and so would not have been captured in the provided data.</p><p>These figures
have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System and although care is taken
when processing and analysing returns, the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent
in any large scale recording system. Although shown to the last case, the figures
may not be accurate to that level.</p><p>The data only includes self-harm incidents
collated centrally; identifying any wider incidents that lead to a hospitalisation
and have a connection to drugs would exceed the cost threshold as it would require
reading through the text of each incident.</p><p>We are committed to doing all we
can to prevent deaths from drug overdoses in prison. We have outlined in both our
Prisons Strategy White Paper and the Government’s 10-year drug strategy ‘From Harm
to Hope’ (2021) how we will achieve this.</p><p>All prisons have a zero-tolerance
approach to drugs. Our £100m Security Investment Programme, completed in March 2022,
introduced measures such as 75 additional X-ray body scanners and airport-style gate
security. To prevent the smuggling of illegal drugs such as psychoactive substances
through the mail, we have deployed 95 next generation drug trace detection machines.
We are aiming for full coverage of public sector prisons by March 2024.</p><p>We are
also increasing the number of Incentivised Substance-Free Living units, where prisoners
commit to remaining free of illicit drugs with regular drug testing and incentives.
We have more than doubled the number of these from 25 last summer to 60 now and we
are aiming to reach up to 100 by March 2025.</p>
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