Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions her Department has had with the Department of Health on the number of people taking their own lives in prisons in the last year.

The Ministry of Justice works closely with the Department of Health at all levels on reducing suicide and self-harm in prisons, to which we are all fully committed. Ministers from both departments, and from the Home Office, are members of the Ministerial Council on Deaths in Custody and are supported by senior officials. Department of Health officials and practitioners have specific strands of action as part of the Suicide and Self-Harm Working Group, and sit on the Project Board that oversees its work. The Project is rolling out revised safer custody training to all prison officers, to equip them better to identify and manage the risk of suicide and self-harm, including during the early days in custody.