Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Keen of Elie on 3 November (HL Deb col 770), what estimate they have made of the financial cost of each suicide which occurs in prisons and of the annual cumulative cost.

Every death in custody is a tragedy, and the Government is committed to reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths in prison. It is very difficult to accurately calculate the financial costs of suicide in prison.

Action to reduce the number of self-inflicted deaths is an urgent priority, and our plans, including investment in 2,500 more prison officers across the prison estate, are set out in the White Paper on Prison Safety and Reform which was published earlier this month.