Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to implement a systematic and quality assured communications gateway to enable prison staff to work with families to reduce self-harm and suicide.

Families can play a significant role in supporting offenders; positive family relationships have been identified as a protective factor in desistance from crime. For this reason, we are promoting strong family ties (including significant others) as an important plank of our Prison Reform Programme, alongside education and employment.

The Government published a review by Lord Farmer on 10 August, which made several recommendations to strengthen family or significant other ties to help offenders turn their lives around and protect public safety. We are taking the recommendations forward, including (in October 2017) giving Governors the budget and flexibility to spend their resources appropriately to help prisoners keep important family ties.

One of Lord Farmer’s recommendations related to the introduction of an “auditable and responsive ‘gateway’ communication system for families and significant others”. We are fully committed to ensuring that prisoners can communicate with their loved ones. We recognise that there is no single method of communication that will be suitable for all users. We will shortly be issuing guidance to prisons on publicising how loved ones can share information about prisoners who may be at risk of self-harm or suicide. In addition, we will issue guidance on facilitating early contact with prisoners’ families or their significant others when they arrive at the prison, so that we can involve them in their support and encourage ongoing contact; and on involving families in the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork process for supporting those at risk.