Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of how many Prevention of Future Death reports his Department has received from coroners relating to deaths in prison in the last three years; and what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) collation, (b) review and (c) implementation of the recommendations of those reports.

Prevention of Future Death (PFD) reports are published on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, available at the following link: Reports to Prevent Future Deaths - Courts and Tribunals Judiciary.

The low number of PFD reports received in 2020/21 is due to the lower number of inquests held due to the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in a higher number of reports received when restrictions were lifted in 2021/22.

All PFD reports arising from inquests into deaths in public sector prisons are handled by a central casework team which works with senior staff at the prison at which the death occurred, and where relevant those responsible for policy within HMPPS and/or MoJ, to draft a response. The response is agreed by the governor and is signed off by the Director General of Operations who responds to the coroner in each case.

The response explains the action that has been taken to address the matter of concern identified by the coroner and/or describes measures that are being introduced to provide assurance that such action has been effective and that consistent compliance with policy is being achieved. Depending on the nature of the concern this may include actions such as issuing reminders and/or providing refresher training to staff and/or the introduction of additional management checks with a follow-up process to address any identified non-compliance.

PFD reports are an important part of our broader system for learning from deaths, which also includes internal early learning reviews and independent investigations by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, and we study all these sources carefully to identify themes to inform improved guidance, regular learning bulletins and the development of our prison safety programme more generally.