The drugs crisis in English and Welsh prisons has reached “endemic” levels, “fostering a dangerous culture of acceptance that must be broken”, the House of Commons Justice Committee has warned.

The prison service’s ability to maintain control, keep inmates safe and offer them “effective rehabilitation” is being “critically undermined” by the sheer scale of the “trade and use of illicit drugs”, the cross-party parliamentary committee said in a new report. Without “urgent reform”, there could be “unacceptable human cost”.

How great is the problem?
A total of 136 drug-related deaths were recorded in English and Welsh prisons between December 2022 and 2024 – accounting for 16% of all 833 deaths across the prison estate during this period.

In some of these institutions, “the number of drug-related medical emergencies is so high that it can cause regime restrictions” and more time spent in cells, the committee’s report said. They have an “embedded” subculture of drug use, with a “menu of drugs” on offer, and according to inmates, it is “almost impossible to get away from them”. Almost two in five inmates surveyed by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons said it was easy to access drugs. 

How are drugs getting into prisons?
Illicit substances, ordered by prisoners with encrypted phones, are smuggled in by visitors or corrupt staff, thrown over prison walls or, increasingly, delivered by drone. In the 12 months to March, 1,712 drone incidents in prisons were recorded, a 43% increase on the previous year, and a new peak.

What can be done about it?
The Justice Committee has called on the Ministry of Justice to update drug testing methods, address the increasing use of synthetic drugs in prisons, and speed up plans for waste-water surveillance systems that can help monitor drug usage trends. The committee also recommended that the government invests in electronic drone countermeasures, such as the “Sky Fence” system that can disrupt drone signals.

In July, the Ministry of Justice announced a £900,000 cash boost to tackle the drones bringing drugs and weapons into prisons, in addition to £40 million already allocated for improving security measures, including reinforcing windows and putting up anti-drone netting.

For years, Margaret Atwood had “no interest” in writing a memoir, said Alexandra Alter in The New York Times. “She thought it would be tedious.” But the celebrated Canadian author eventually caved, penning the much-anticipated “Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts”.

So what changed? “Two words: People died,” Atwood told the paper. “There’s things you can say that you wouldn’t say when they were alive.” Yet her new book isn’t a “blistering, score-settling tell-all”, said Alter, “though there’s a dose of that”. Mostly, it’s about the “experiences” that have shaped her work.

‘Bean-spilling’
“Alcoholic excess” and “debauched parties” would have livened up this memoir, said Blake Morrison in The Guardian, but Atwood “hasn’t lived that way”. What she has written is less a “slice of life”, more “the whole works”: a 600-odd page book spanning all 85 years.

Her “self-deprecating wit” and “entertaining” anecdotes ensure “Book of Lives” is never tedious, said Francesca Steele in The i Paper. “She is a hoot.” And while Atwood seems largely “uninterested” in the type of “squalid moral book-keeping” she mentions in her introduction, this doesn’t apply to her partner Graeme Gibson’s first wife, Shirley, who she “paints as a bitter, vengeful ex intent on ruining Atwood’s reputation and taking her money”. Of course, this is exactly the type of “bean-spilling” that gives the book a “deliciously naughty bite”.

‘Literary juice’
Sadly, Atwood “hasn’t much to say about the writing of her early books”, said John Self in The Times. We are, however, treated to the “literary juice” many readers will be hoping for from the writer behind “The Handmaid’s Tale”. We “hear about her fellow Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler proposing that he and Atwood fake a series of love letters, then sell them for a mint”. And we also get an insight into Atwood’s relationship with Gibson, “a perfect pairing” until the beginning of his slow decline from dementia.

Atwood’s “ingeniousness and wit” is evident on “every page” of her momoir, said Leigh Haber in The Boston Globe. It’s “lucky for us” that she decided to press on with writing what “has to be the most spectacular, hilarious, and generous autobiography of the last quarter century – or ever”.

David Beckham receives a knighthood from King Charles for his services to sport and charity. The football star’s wife, now officially Lady Victoria Beckham, joined him at the investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle.

Jonathan Brady / PA Images / Alamy

If the latest series of “The Celebrity Traitors” has you hankering for a Scottish escape, look no further than these majestic castle hotels. Expect crackling fires, scenic grounds and grand historical details at every turn.

Glenapp Castle, Ayrshire
Built in the 1870s this “remarkable” fortress (pictured above) is dotted with “dreamy turrets and battlements”, said The Independent. Located in the “southern extremities” of Ayrshire, it’s not easy to reach – but the journey is worth it. The castle is tucked away in the cliffs, with stunning sea views taking in the Isle of Arran and Ailsa Craig. If you want to go all out, consider booking the Hebridean Sea Safari, which “whisks you off to the isles in their boat to glamp on remote island shores with a private chef in tow”.

Stonefield Castle, Argyll
This spectacular “high-Victorian baronial folly” is as “castellated, crenellated and pepper-potted as any romantic could wish for”, said The Telegraph. Rescued after “years of neglect”, the main living areas have undergone a subtle refurb but retain buckets of character, with “crackling log fires, stags’ heads, coffered ceilings and candlelight”.

Thornton Castle, Aberdeenshire
Set in the foothills of the Highlands, this 14th century castle is both a laid-back B&B and a family home. “My bathroom alone,” said Joanna Moorhead in The Guardian, “was worth the trip: a vast, claw-foot, freestanding tub in the oldest part of the castle, a 12th-century tower.” The roof is a great place to take in the “gorgeous views of the walled garden and surrounding countryside”. 

Grade inflation is harming a generation of school children
Joanna Williams in The Spectator
Rather than acknowledge “the hard truth” that children’s education suffered because of school closures during Covid, the government “disguised” it “with grade inflation”, writes Joanna Williams. “The number of assessed topics was reduced”, pupils were allowed “crib sheets” and “marking was more generous”. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson’s plan for a reading test at 13 “reveals the extent to which standards have fallen” as we can no longer “take for granted that secondary school pupils can read fluently”.

Say what you like about ‘Sadiq Khan’s no-go hellscape’ – Britain’s cities prove the rightwing agitators wrong
Jonathan Liew in The Guardian
I write “these words from the jaws of hell”, writes Jonathan Liew. The “screaming terrors” of London are part of a broader “obsession among the global right”, in which any city “is recast as a malign, seditious entity, a cesspit of violence and vice”. And yet more of us are living in urban areas. “Rightwing populism” tries to present “an increasingly complex world” in “simple terms”, but cities “are messy places” of “fluidity and freedom and possibility”.

To end Aids, we must fight harder for LGBT rights
Elton John and David Furnish in The Independent
During the early days of the Aids crisis, it was “convenient” to “blame the victims and walk away”, write Elton John and David Furnish. But “the LGBT community and its public health allies fought back”. Now, “cuts to foreign aid” by countries that together “provide 90% of international HIV funding” have sparked a “new crisis”. Our whole society must stand together, for “as soon as one group is seen as unworthy of help, it sets a dangerous precedent for all”.