A Bradford MP has called for a review of procedures at Leeds Prison after new figures suggested it was the worst in the country for the numbers of inmates testing positive for drugs.

A report by the Prison Reform Trust also revealed that Armley Jail, where many Bradford criminals are sent, had one of the highest suicide rates for prisons nationally last year.

The report, 'A Measure of Success,' painted a bleak picture of conditions in Britain's jails, with record levels of overcrowding and staff sickness and the highest ever number of suicides - 105 - last year.

The number of positive drug tests nationally increased to 11.7 per cent, the first rise in five years. - but at Leeds the figure soared to 28.3 per cent.

There were four suicides at Leeds during the year. Only Durham Jail, with six, had a higher rate.

Armley was also badly overcrowded, with three-quarters of the inmates having to share single cells.

But the number of assaults on prisoners and staff at Leeds was 7.6 per cent, comfortably below the national average and the Prison Service target.

MP Terry Rooney (Lab, Bradford North) said the figure for positive drugs tests at Leeds was "scary."

He said: "I find it very disturbing and I am extremely concerned. There is obviously something wrong at Armley that it is so far out of line with the national average.

"They need to review procedures, particularly with regard to visiting times because I suspect that's where the drugs are coming in.

"If 28 per cent of random tests are positive it makes you wonder how many more are using drugs. It needs sorting out."

Mr Rooney congratulated the prison on the low level of assaults but expressed his concern about the number of suicides.

"I have had dealings with Armley over the years about a number of suicides," he said.

"One is one too many - four is obviously a lot worse. These are areas of serious concern, particularly where there is loss of life."

Leeds Prison governor Mrs Stacey Tasker said the figures were unfair on her jail and comparing Leeds to a training or open prison was worthless.

She said: "Comparing us with Askham Grange or Full Sutton, for instance, is like chalk and cheese, there is nothing similar between us.

"They are training prisons and none of their prisoners go to court. My job is to hold people who can't get bail, take them to court every day and when they are sentenced we hold them until they are allocated to a training prison. If you compare us to other like prisons we are right towards the top of the league table."

Mrs Tasker said 80 per cent of people who went to Armley had a drug problem and 86 per cent of those were heroin addicts. Half the inmates were not registered with a GP and a third were homeless.

She added: "We are dealing with people who come off the streets. They are unpredictable and a high percentage have a mental illness. Our job is to help them in whatever way we can in the short space of time they are here."

The governor said the number of positive drug tests was down to 14 per cent in June.