Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many deaths in prison custody occurred in each year since 2010; and if he will make a statement.

The Government publishes statistics on deaths in custody quarterly, and updated detailed tables annually. The most recent tables were published on 26 January 2018 and cover the year to the end of December 2017. They can be viewed at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-september-2017.

The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep prisoners safe, and while these latest figures show a welcome fall in the number of deaths in total and self-inflicted deaths in particular, we can and must do more. We have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to reduce deaths in custody, including: rolling out revised and improved training for staff in assessing and managing the risk of suicide and self-harm amongst prisoners (which has already reached nearly 15,000 staff); improving support for prisoners in their early days in custody; revising the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork case management process for those identified as being at risk; and renewing our partnership with the Samaritans by confirming a further three years' grant funding for their valuable Listeners Scheme.