Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence have died of natural causes while in prison since 2023.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Please see the number of people serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence who have died of natural causes while in prison since 2023 in the table below. Please note that these figures are derived from the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database. As classification of deaths may change following inquest or as new information emerges, numbers may change from time to time. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman investigate each death.
Year | Number |
2023 | 8 |
2024 | 12 |
2025 | 6 |
Notes
Figures include incidents at HMPPS operated Immigration Removal Centres and during contracted out escorts (including contracted out escort of prisoners from STCs), but do not include incidents at Medway STC.
Deaths in prison custody figures include all deaths of prisoners arising from incidents during prison custody. They include deaths of prisoners while released on temporary license (ROTL) for medical reasons but exclude other types of ROTL where the state has less direct responsibility.
All classifications of deaths remain provisional until confirmed at inquest. Due to the number of deaths that remain unclassified (awaiting further information) in recent years, and the latest year particularly, caution should be used when comparing with earlier periods.
In addition to deaths in prison custody which actually occur in hospitals, hospices or nursing homes a small proportion will occur while in an ambulance on the way to hospital, while on escort.
An indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) was introduced in 2005. It was intended for high risk prisoners considered ‘dangerous’ but whose offence did not merit a life sentence. The number of prisoners held on this sentence increased initially and the increase was offset by reductions elsewhere.
IPP prisoners in this table include both recalled and unreleased prisoners recorded as serving an IPP as their main sentence.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence have taken their own lives while they (1) have absconded, (2) are out on release on temporary licence, and (3) have a concurrent sentence running alongside their IPP sentence.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence have taken their own lives while (1) in prison, and (2) out on release.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There were 92 self-inflicted deaths of people serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence while in prison custody in the period from the introduction of the sentence in 2005 to December 2025. There were 44 such deaths of people serving an IPP on licence in the community between April 2019 and March 2025.
Data on community‑based deaths is only available for this more restricted period because:
Before April 2019 information was collected through manual returns, and identifying individuals serving an IPP sentence would require matching thousands of records, which cannot be done without disproportionate cost; and
Data for the period from April 2025 to March 2026 is scheduled for publication in October 2026.
The category of self-inflicted deaths includes a broader range of deaths than suicide. Definitions for apparent causes of death are provided in the ‘Safety in Custody’ and ‘Deaths of Offenders in the Community’ statistical publications. For breakdowns by year and other accompanying notes, please refer to the tables below. Information on self-inflicted deaths in prison by IPP prisoners are published annually in the detailed deaths tables accompanying the ‘Safety in Custody’ statistics (see Table 1_7 of Deaths in prison custody 1978 to 2025 for the most recent data, as provided here).
Table 1: Self-inflicted deaths in prison custody by Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence type since 2005, England and Wales
Imprisonment for Public Protection | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
0 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 | |
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2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
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4 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 4 | 2 |
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Data sources and quality
Deaths figures are derived from the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database. As classification of deaths may change following inquests or as new information emerges, numbers may change from time to time.
Notes
(1) Deaths in prison custody figures include all deaths of prisoners arising from incidents during prison custody. They include deaths of prisoners while released on temporary license (ROTL) for medical reasons but exclude other types of ROTL where the state has less direct responsibility.
(2) Due to the number of deaths that remain unclassified (awaiting further information) in recent years, and the latest year particularly, caution should be used when comparing with earlier periods.
(3) Apparent cause is based on the HMPPS classification of deaths in prison custody. The self-inflicted deaths category includes a wider range of deaths than suicides. When comparing figures with other sources it is important to determine whether the narrower suicide or broader self-inflicted deaths approach is in use.
(4) All classifications of deaths remain provisional until confirmed at inquest.
(5) In addition to deaths in prison custody which occur in hospitals, hospices or nursing homes, a small proportion will occur while in an ambulance on the way to hospital, while on escort.
(6) An indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) was introduced in 2005. It was intended for high-risk prisoners considered ‘dangerous’ but whose offence did not merit a life sentence. The number of prisoners held on this sentence increased initially and the increase was offset by reductions elsewhere.
(7) Recalled prisoners are those held in custody for breaching the terms of their licence conditions following release into the community. Recalled prisoners are not shown separately within the deaths tables, they are recorded against their initial sentence type.
(8) Caution should be used when comparing the number of deaths from one year to the next due to low numbers which are subject to fluctuation.
Table 2: Self-inflicted deaths of offenders serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence supervised on licence in the community, financial year 2019/20 to 2024/25, England and Wales (1) (2) (3) (4) | ||||||
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 (p) |
Community | 6 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 7 |
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p) The 2024/25 figures are provisional and may be updated in future publications to account for any changes or additions to the data since they were originally collected
(1) Apparent causes for years prior to 2023/24 are based on data reported through annual returns (prior to 2020/21 only) or the national Delius case management system and have not been independently verified. From 2023/24 onwards, cause data sourced from Delius have been independently verified by the General Register Office (GRO) and updated accordingly. The latest provisional data for 2024/25 remain based on apparent causes, i.e., they have not been independently verified. For further details about the GRO verification process, refer to the guide to deaths of offenders supervised in the community statistics.
(2) The reporting period for these statistics (financial year 1 April to 31 March) relates to when the death occurred.
(3) A new set of death classifications was implemented on 1 April 2022 and, as such, figures for 2022/23 onwards are not comparable to those presented for previous years. The category of 'self-inflicted death' up to 31 March 2022 includes any death of a person who has apparently taken his or her own life, irrespective of intent. The category of 'self-inflicted death' from 1 April 2022 includes any death of a person at their own hand, including where intent is undetermined. This includes some drug poisonings (e.g., where a suicide note is found or the circumstances are suspicious) but not drug poisonings which appear to have been the accidental result of consumption for another purpose. Refer to the guide to deaths of offenders supervised in the community statistics for further details about the new set of classifications.
(4) In June 2025, a data sharing agreement was established with the General Register Office (GRO) to provide access to official cause of death data following the registration of a death. This information is then used to update the provisional categorisation of deaths on the probation case management system. Official causes of death from the GRO are only available for deaths occurring from 1 April 2023 onwards. Also, the registration of a death can be delayed when a case is referred to the coroner and, as such, the official cause of death from the GRO is not available for deaths that occurred in the most recent period. Comparisons across cause of death categories over time should, therefore, not be made, as periods prior to 1 April 2023 and the most recent reporting period are based on provisional classifications, which are not directly comparable to GRO-verified data.
Data sources and quality
The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Source: National Delius case management system.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to instruct coroners to record whether a victim of suicide had been a serving or former member of the armed forces.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The Government has addressed this issue in its response to the current e-petition on the recording of veterans’ suicides. A revised response was published on 30 October 2018. A copy of the response is attached.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of deterrent sentences in reducing knife crime.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The government continues to monitor sentencing for bladed and offensive weapon offences and will keep under review the effectiveness of changes in the law relating to knives and offensive weapons.
The latest knife possession sentencing quarterly statistics bulletin was published on 8 June 2017 and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/617646/knife-possession-sentencing-quarterly-jan-mar-2017.pdf
In regard to repeat offending for knife possession offences, the latest statistics show that 86% of adult repeat offenders received a custodial sentence. This figure increased by 2 percentage points when compared to the same quarter in the previous year for offenders convicted under section 22 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 (minimum sentence of 6 months for a second or subsequent knife possession offence). The number of repeat knife possession sentencing occasions increased from 837 in Q1 2016 to an estimated 1,129 cases Q1 2017. Those offenders receiving an immediate custodial sentence had an average sentence length of 7.2 months.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to bring forward their review of the mandatory criminal courts charge.
Answered by Lord Faulks
It is right that we find better ways to pay the costs of running our criminal courts, and the introduction of this charge has made it possible to recover some of the costs from offenders, which reduces the burden on taxpayers. The Government is keeping the operation of the criminal courts charge under review.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the number of individuals who are innocent of crimes but have pleaded guilty in order to reduce their liability for the mandatory criminal courts charge since April 2015.
Answered by Lord Faulks
Section 55 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 places a duty on the Lord Chancellor to carry out a review of the Criminal Courts Charge three years after implementation of the charge. No such assessment has been made to date.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the mandatory criminal courts charge on the number of guilty pleas.
Answered by Lord Faulks
Section 55 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 places a duty on the Lord Chancellor to carry out a review of the Criminal Courts Charge three years after implementation of the charge. No such assessment has been made to date.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what training for the world of work will be undertaken by young offenders sent to the new secure college that is due to open in 2017; and how that training will be evaluated.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The Secure College in Leicestershire will be the first of a new generation of secure educational establishments which will put education at the heart of youth custody. It will inform our vision for the future of the youth custodial estate across England and Wales.
Education provision will be tailored to the particular needs of young people in custody. We anticipate Secure Colleges providing a strong focus on the core skills, such as literacy and numeracy, which all young people need, but with sufficient flexibility for vocational training and workplace skills to develop those offenders seeking employment on release. We would want to afford operators the same freedoms as academies, to personalise learning pathways and target intervention.
The Secure College Pathfinder operator will make continuous assessment of young people to ensure that they progress towards the targets set out in their individual plans.