Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of self-inflicted deaths in prisons in England.

The death of any prisoner is a tragedy and we are focussing our efforts on supporting those at risk of suicide in prisons in England and Wales and keeping them safe. Vulnerable prisoners are supported through the ACCT (Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork) case management and we are currently rolling out further improvements to this framework. We have also given 25,000 new and existing staff self-harm and suicide prevention training to help them better support prisoners with complex needs and refreshed our partnership with the Samaritans who provide the excellent Listeners scheme, which trains selected prisoners to provide emotional support to their fellow prisoners.

We are under no illusions about the impact of the measures which were put in place to protect lives during the Covid-19 pandemic and we have made prisoners’ safety and wellbeing our priority. For this reason we have enabled continued family contact through more than 1,500 secure mobile phones and rolled out secure video call technology into every single prison in the male, female and youth estate. Each prisoner is also given £5 PIN credit per week to keep in touch with their loved ones. We are also delivering more in cell-activities such as distraction packs, supplementary food packs, and additional educational materials to mitigate the impact of isolation.