Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for its policies of levels of suicides in English and Welsh prisons in 2016.

The Government believes that prisons should be places of safety and reform. The number of self-inflicted deaths is extremely concerning and we are committed to reducing it. Our recent White Paper set out specific steps that we are taking to improve safety. They include investing over £100m to recruit an additional 2,500 staff across the estate by the end of 2018.

We have also provided an additional £10m of new annual funding for prison safety, supplemented by £2.9m from existing budgets. This has given a significant number of governors the opportunity to improve safety levels in their establishments.

The National Offender Management Service is undertaking a suicide and self-harm reduction project, led by an experienced prison governor, which is driving work in this area. The work includes implementing the recommendations of a review of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) process, the multi-disciplinary case management process that is the main tool for managing prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm. This includes the roll out of new training that will help improve staff understanding of suicide and self-harm, including a module designed to raise awareness of mental health issues and to equip staff to respond appropriately to prisoners experiencing mental health problems.