Women's Prisons: Self-harm

(asked on 23rd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents of self-harm have been recorded in women’s prisons since 31 March 2020.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 29th June 2020

We publish data on the number of incidents of self-harm recorded across the prison estate as part of our Safety in Custody statistics. Figures for the period up to 31st March 2020 will be published on 30th July 2020.

The most recent quarterly figures (up to December 2019), showed an increase in self-harm incidents in women’s prisons with 3243 incidents recorded, compared with 2995 incidents in the quarter up to September 2019.

The level of self-harm in women’s is too high and we are determined to address this. Our women’s estate psychology services (WEPS) have previously developed specialist interventions designed to support the most complex women within our care, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic they have continued to support both staff and residents where it is safe to do so.

We are continuing to provide care and support to people at risk of self-harm or suicide through ACCT (Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork) case management. We have issued guidance to establishments during the pandemic so they can ensure that ACCT processes continue during the restricted regimes.

Across the prison estate, we have also given over 25,000 staff better training to spot and prevent self-harm and are investing an extra £2.75 billion to modernise prisons, combat drug use and improve the environment in which prisoners live.

As well as this, we have refreshed our partnership with the Samaritans which supports the excellent Listeners scheme, through which selected prisoners are trained to provide emotional support to their fellow prisoners.

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