Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) remand and (b) convicted prisoners have died on the prison estate in each of the last five years, by ethnicity.

Please see the attached table showing the number of prisoners who have died on the prison estate, by sentence type and ethnicity, from 2015 to 2019. Our condolences are with the family and friends of the prisoners who have died.

These figures are derived from the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database. As classification of deaths may change following inquest or as new information emerges, numbers may change from time to time.

We have accepted and acted upon the vast majority of recommendations from Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) investigations into deaths in custody, and regularly disseminate the PPO’s thematic reports and lessons learned bulletins.

The Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody is taking forward a programme of work aimed at minimising deaths in custody, and better supporting families if a death does occur.