Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the September 2018 HM Prison and Probation Service report Self-harm by adult men in prison: A rapid evidence assessment, what assessment his Department has made of the reason why the rate of self-harm among male prisoners increased from 161 to 306 incidents per 1,000 prisoners between December 2006 and the end of 2015.

The causes of self-harm in prisons are complex. They include “imported factors”, such as the characteristics of the population coming into prison, and “custodial factors”, such as the nature of the prison environment and regime.

The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep prisoners safe, and we are committed to reducing the incidence of self-harm across the estate. This is why we have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to improve safety in custody. They include:

• investing in over 3,000 additional staff in order to deliver consistent, purposeful regimes;
• rolling out revised and improved training for staff in assessing and managing the risk of suicide and self-harm amongst prisoners (this has already reached more than 17,000 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

renewing our partnership with the Samaritans by confirming a further three years' grant funding for their valuable Listeners Scheme.