Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of recent trends in the number of self-inflicted deaths in prisons.

The Safety in Custody statistics, published quarterly at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics, show that the number of self-inflicted deaths in prisons has fallen by 30%, from 110 in the year to September 2016 to 77 in the year to September 2017.

Every self-inflicted death in custody is a tragedy, and the Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep prisoners safe. We have established a prison safety programme that includes a comprehensive set of actions to prevent self-inflicted deaths, including: rolling out revised and improved training for staff; improving support for prisoners in their early days in custody; revising the ACCT case management process for those identified as being at risk; and funding the Samaritans to provide their valuable Listeners Scheme.