Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in each of the last ten years, how many (1) deaths in prisons have been judged as preventable by coroners, and (2) deaths in prisons have been judged as preventable by coroners where fire or smoke from a fire was the cause or contributed to the death.

The Department does not hold data on the number of deaths in prison that have been judged as preventable by coroners as coroners do not always express a clear view about whether a death is preventable.

In the last ten years, two deaths in prison have been the subject of coroners' findings indicating that the death may have been preventable, where fire or smoke inhalation from a fire was either the cause of death or a contributing factor.