Question to the Ministry of Justice:

What steps he is taking to tackle recent trends in the level of self-harm in prisons.

There are encouraging signs that self-harm has started to reduce in recent months, but it remains a concern.

We have given over 25,000 prison staff better training to spot and prevent self-harm;

We have refreshed our partnership with the Samaritans which supports the Listeners scheme, whereby selected prisoners are trained to provide emotional support to their fellow prisoners;

We have also piloted improvements to Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT), the multidisciplinary case management approach to supporting prisoners thought to be at risk of self-harm or suicide. We are currently planning the resumption of roll-out of the revised ACCT across the prison estate.