Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the incidence of self-harming of people held in the Prison Estate.

We have put in place a range of measures to support prisoners who are at risk of self-harm or suicide, especially in the early period in custody, when they are at their most vulnerable.

We have established a Prison Safety programme to support establishments in the implementation of the reforms set out in the Prison Safety and Reform White Paper, including our investment in an additional 2,500 staff who will help deliver consistent, purposeful regimes and allow us to introduce a new key worker role to support better staff-prisoner relationships.

We are rolling out new training across the estate to support our staff to identify the risks and triggers of suicide and self-harm and understand what they can do to support prisoners at risk. We have put in place specialist roles - regional safer custody teams - in every region to provide advice to prisons and to spread good practice on identifying and supporting prisoners at risk. We are using experts, including providing extra funding for the Samaritans, to provide targeted support for prison staff and to prisoners directly.