Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) rate per 1,000 prisoners is of (a) self-harm (b) self-inflicted deaths in each prison in the 12 month period to September 2018.

The table provides the rates of incidents of self-harm and self-inflicted deaths per 1,000 prisoners for the 12 month period to September 2018. On average, those who self-harmed did so 4.4 times, although a small number of prolific self-harmers have a disproportionate effect on this figure. The majority of those who self-harm in prison do so only once a year.

The Government is taking unprecedented action to improve safety in prisons, including redoubling our efforts to prevent self-inflicted deaths and to reduce the levels of self-harm. We have recruited over 4,700 more prison officers since October 2016, and we now have the greatest number in post since early 2012. This is allowing us to implement the key worker role, allowing staff dedicated time to provide support to individual prisoners.

We are improving support for prisoners in their early days in custody and working to improve the multi-disciplinary ACCT case management process for those at risk of suicide or self-harm.

We have rolled out a revised and improved Introduction to Suicide and Self-harm Prevention course. This is being completed by all new staff and as refresher training by all existing staff. Nearly 25,000 staff have already begun this training and over 14,000 have completed all six modules.