Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:07 pm on 14 March 2018.
I had a meeting today at which part of this issue was covered—about the adequacy of NHS healthcare within the prison system. Of course, Parc we don't have oversight for because it's the nature of it being a private prison. Actually, the oversight there comes from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons. There is a challenge here also about recognising, once prisoners are released, their relationship with the probation service. I really do regret the changes that have been made by the United Kingdom Government to the probation service. I think it is a less robust service that is less able to properly support people on their release from a custodial sentence, and I think they are more likely to reoffend and find themselves in a vulnerable position as a result. But there is a regular amount of work that looks at healthcare within prisons, of which, of course, substance misuse is an important part, and I expect to have a further update from the joint work being done by Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and Her Majesty's inspectorate on the adequacy of the service being provided.