Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made any assessment of any difference in life expectancy of prisoners to the population a whole; and if so, what is that difference.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the noble Lord’s Parliamentary Question of 6 March is attached.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Patten

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

8 March 2023

Dear Lord Patten,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking whether any assessment has been made of any difference in life expectancy of prisoners to the population as a whole; and if so, what is that difference (HL6095).

The ONS produces the National Statistics on life expectancy for the population as a whole, local areas of the United Kingdom and for socioeconomic classes. The ONS have not estimated the life expectancy of prisoners in its regular portfolio of life expectancy releases and would require new complex analyses to produce such statistics.

Currently, the Ministry of Justice provides official estimates of deaths in prison custody in England and Wales [1] as part of their Safety in custody statistics [2] , with reference to broad cause of death categories assigned prior to coroner’s inquest.

The ONS produce Experimental Statistics [3] on deaths in prisoners, by linking the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) data together to give additional insight into suicide and drug-related deaths in prison custody [4].

[1] Deaths in prison custody, Ministry of Justice.

[2] Safety in custody statistics, Ministry of Justice

[3] Experimental Statistics, ONS

[4] Drug-related deaths and suicide in prison custody in England and Wales: 2008 to 2019