Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has spent on investigations into self-inflicted deaths in each year since 2010.

The table below shows how much the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has spent on investigations into self-inflicted deaths from 2010/11 to 2015/16. This covers the salary costs of managers, investigators, and administrative staff including interview transcribers, family liaison officers and fees for call-off investigators. It also includes travel and incidental expenses.

The Government believes that prisons should be places of safety and reform. It is concerned by the number of self-inflicted deaths and is committed to reducing it. The 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.

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.