Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in prison are currently managed under the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork care planning system.

On 25 October 2018, 2,640 prisoners were being supported and managed through the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) process.

The number of ACCT documents opened in each of the last five years is:

2013 33716

2014 37197

2015 43714

2016 48101

2017 49298

These are the numbers of occasions on which an ACCT was opened. Because there are many cases of individual prisoners being supported using ACCT more than once within a year, the figures for each year are considerably higher than the number of prisoners who have been supported during that year.

The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep staff and prisoners safe, and we are committed to reducing the incidence of self harm, suicide and violence across the estate. This is why we have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to improve safety in custody, including: rolling out revised and improved training for staff in assessing and managing the risk of suicide and self-harm amongst prisoners (which has already reached more than 17,000 staff); improving support for prisoners in their early days in custody; revising the ACCT case management process for those identified as being at risk; and renewing our partnership with the Samaritans by confirming a further three years' grant funding for their valuable Listeners Scheme.