Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP / YOI Downview, published on 29 September 2021, page 11, if he will make an assessment on the impact on the (a) accuracy and (b) comparability over time of self-harm in custody incident statistics of the decision to remove incidents of noose-making from the noose: ligature-making category.

Self-harm in prison custody is defined as “any act where a prisoner deliberately harms themselves, irrespective of method, intent or severity of any injury”.

Our assessment of the impact on the self-harm statistics was set out in the Safety in Custody statistical bulletin published in January 2021, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-september-2020/safety-in-custody-statistics-england-and-wales-deaths-in-prison-custody-to-december-2020-assaults-and-self-harm-to-september-2020. There has been a reduction of less than 2% in the number of incidents where ‘noose: ligature making’ has been reported.