Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have died by suicide in 2017 to date.

Every death in custody is a tragedy and we are redoubling our efforts to make prisons places of safety for those at risk. We have put in place a range of measures to support prisoners who are at risk of self-harm or suicide, especially in the first 24 hours when they are at their most vulnerable. We are also 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.

Data on deaths in prison custody are published quarterly in the Safety in Custody statistics. The most recent statistics were published on 27 July 2017 and cover deaths in prison custody to June 2017. They are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics. The next set of statistics, covering deaths to September 2017, will be published on 26 October 2017.