Baroness Hussein-Ece
Main Page: Baroness Hussein-Ece (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Hussein-Ece's debates with the Ministry of Justice
(2 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)
My Lords, I am sure the Prisons Minister will be familiar with the document; I confess that I am not. However, with respect, it is not right to say that the number of self-harming incidents has gone up. In the female estate, it is right to say that the rate of self-harm is higher than it was pre-pandemic; in the male estate, it is lower. Therefore, one has to look at the figures carefully.
Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)
My Lords, the Minister just mentioned the rise in female self-harm in the prison estate. The figure I saw for up to October last year was a 47% rise in self-harm among women and a rise of one-fifth for young people. Does he accept that this is a failure of the duty of care? What is being done to review mental health services and support for women and young people in prison?
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar (Con)
My Lords, without getting into the statistics too much, comparing the 12 months to September 2021 with the 12 months to September 2019—post and pre pandemic—it is 23% higher. On the female estate, which is quite small, we acknowledge that female prisoners are overwhelmingly those who have had significant problems in their lives pre prison, and they are therefore a particularly vulnerable group coming into prison. That is why we focus on the female estate in particular. I am very pleased that, as I pointed out earlier, we had no self-inflicted deaths in the female estate last year.