Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of suicides which took place in prisons were by people who were not on the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork programme in prison in each year since 2010.

The Government publishes statistics on deaths in custody quarterly, and updated detailed tables annually. They can be viewed at gov.uk.

Self-inflicted deaths¹ where prisoners were not on an open ACCT², England and Wales, 2010 to 2017

Notes:

1 Because of the number of deaths that remain unclassified (awaiting further information) in more recent years, caution should be used when comparing with earlier periods.

2 If a prisoner was not subject to the ACCT (Assessment Care in Custody and Teamwork) process at the time of the incident that resulted in death, the prisoner is described as not being on an open ACCT.

Every death in custody is a tragedy. 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, including: rolling out revised and improved training for staff in assessing and managing the risk of suicide and self-harm amongst prisoners; 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.