Asked by: Tony Lloyd (Labour - Rochdale)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) suicides and (b) attempted suicides that have taken place in prisons in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, (iii) 2021 and (iv) 2022.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The data on self-inflicted deaths is recorded in our published Safety in Custody Statistics.
The number and rates of self-inflicted deaths across the estate in the 12 months to March 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 is published in the Safety in Custody Summary table which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1153227/Safety-in-custody-summary-q4-2022-final-tables.xlsx.
We do not produce official statistics on suicides. Self-inflicted deaths are any death of a person who has apparently taken his or her own life irrespective of intent. This not only includes suicides but also accidental deaths as a result of the person’s own actions. This classification is used because it is not always known whether a person intended to take their own life.
We are unable to answer the question on attempted suicide as we do not record this data.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish a breakdown of the number of Serious Further Offence convictions by (a) the type of index sentence and (b) offence type in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Figures on the number of serious further offence notifications that have resulted in a conviction for 2021/22 will be published in October 2023. Figures will be accessible using the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics
Figures are published based on the date of SFO notification (charge) to HMPPS. The lag between the date of publication and the conviction figures is to allow time for most cases to complete the criminal justice process.
In respect of the number of serious further offence convictions by offence type and region in each year since 2010, I refer the honourable Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) to the answers I gave on 20 January 2023 to Question UIN 125451 and on 3 February 2023 to Question UIN 132490.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-01-17/125451
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-01-25/132490
The table below sets out the total number of notifications – that is, where an offender subject to probation supervision has been charged with a qualifying serious further offence (SFO) – which resulted in a conviction for an SFO, by index sentence, for notifications submitted to NOMS/HMPPS between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2014.
The latest figures for 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2021 were published in October 2022 and can be found in in Table 2 of the ‘Serious Further Offence Annual Tables’ which can be accessed by the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-october-to-december-2020
Index Sentence | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 |
Community Supervision | 205 | 153 | 151 | 151 | 147 |
Determinate Prison Sentence | 102 | 100 | 100 | 118 | 116 |
Life Licence | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
IPP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Total | 313 | 257 | 253 | 270 | 275 |
1. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.
2. Index sentence refers to the sentencing disposal imposed by the court which led to probation services supervision of the offender
3. The data only includes convictions for serious further offences that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.
4. The data provided are provisional subject to change when any outstanding cases are concluded at court.
5. Conviction data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where the judicial process concluded that they were responsible.
6. The data for April 2010 to March 2014 has been updated and may differ to the original publication due to data cleansing, re-categorising and re-grouping.
7. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
8. A basic SFO scheme was introduced in 2003 but data was not captured accurately. An electronic case management system was introduced in 2009/10, which recorded all SFOs referred to the central SFO Review Team, but even then, it was a couple of years since we had assurance that local areas were referring all SFO cases to the SFO Review Team to be recorded on the case management system.
9. The list of offences that qualify as SFOs has changed since 2009.
In respect of the number of serious further offence convictions by index sentence and offence type in each year since 2010, I refer the honourable Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) to the answers I have given to Questions UIN 185282 and 185281.
The Ministry of Justice publishes the number of offenders convicted of a serious further offence but do not expect to publish the names, due to the personal nature of the information. Personal data relating to offenders can only be released if to do so would not contravene any of the principles set out in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Serious further offences are incredibly rare, with fewer than 0.5% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service going on to commit serious further offences but each one is investigated fully so we can take action where necessary. We have also injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year into the Probation Service to deliver tougher supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer.
On Wednesday 29 March 2023, we announced the introduction of the Victims and Prisoners Bill. As part of this, Ministers will be given the power to veto the release of the most dangerous offenders, including murderers, rapists and terrorists - putting public protection back as the overriding focus of the parole process. The Bill will also legislate for a new release test for the Parole Board making it clear that public safety is the only priority when making release decisions – to stop a balancing exercise taking into account prisoners’ rights.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish a breakdown of the number of serious further offence convictions by the type of index sentence in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Figures on the number of serious further offence notifications that have resulted in a conviction for 2021/22 will be published in October 2023. Figures will be accessible using the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics
Figures are published based on the date of SFO notification (charge) to HMPPS. The lag between the date of publication and the conviction figures is to allow time for most cases to complete the criminal justice process.
In respect of the number of serious further offence convictions by offence type and region in each year since 2010, I refer the honourable Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) to the answers I gave on 20 January 2023 to Question UIN 125451 and on 3 February 2023 to Question UIN 132490.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-01-17/125451
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-01-25/132490
The table below sets out the total number of notifications – that is, where an offender subject to probation supervision has been charged with a qualifying serious further offence (SFO) – which resulted in a conviction for an SFO, by index sentence, for notifications submitted to NOMS/HMPPS between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2014.
The latest figures for 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2021 were published in October 2022 and can be found in in Table 2 of the ‘Serious Further Offence Annual Tables’ which can be accessed by the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-october-to-december-2020
Index Sentence | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 |
Community Supervision | 205 | 153 | 151 | 151 | 147 |
Determinate Prison Sentence | 102 | 100 | 100 | 118 | 116 |
Life Licence | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
IPP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Total | 313 | 257 | 253 | 270 | 275 |
1. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.
2. Index sentence refers to the sentencing disposal imposed by the court which led to probation services supervision of the offender
3. The data only includes convictions for serious further offences that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.
4. The data provided are provisional subject to change when any outstanding cases are concluded at court.
5. Conviction data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where the judicial process concluded that they were responsible.
6. The data for April 2010 to March 2014 has been updated and may differ to the original publication due to data cleansing, re-categorising and re-grouping.
7. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
8. A basic SFO scheme was introduced in 2003 but data was not captured accurately. An electronic case management system was introduced in 2009/10, which recorded all SFOs referred to the central SFO Review Team, but even then, it was a couple of years since we had assurance that local areas were referring all SFO cases to the SFO Review Team to be recorded on the case management system.
9. The list of offences that qualify as SFOs has changed since 2009.
In respect of the number of serious further offence convictions by index sentence and offence type in each year since 2010, I refer the honourable Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) to the answers I have given to Questions UIN 185282 and 185281.
The Ministry of Justice publishes the number of offenders convicted of a serious further offence but do not expect to publish the names, due to the personal nature of the information. Personal data relating to offenders can only be released if to do so would not contravene any of the principles set out in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Serious further offences are incredibly rare, with fewer than 0.5% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service going on to commit serious further offences but each one is investigated fully so we can take action where necessary. We have also injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year into the Probation Service to deliver tougher supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer.
On Wednesday 29 March 2023, we announced the introduction of the Victims and Prisoners Bill. As part of this, Ministers will be given the power to veto the release of the most dangerous offenders, including murderers, rapists and terrorists - putting public protection back as the overriding focus of the parole process. The Bill will also legislate for a new release test for the Parole Board making it clear that public safety is the only priority when making release decisions – to stop a balancing exercise taking into account prisoners’ rights.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of serious further offence convictions by offence type and region in each year since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Figures on the number of serious further offence notifications that have resulted in a conviction for 2021/22 will be published in October 2023. Figures will be accessible using the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics
Figures are published based on the date of SFO notification (charge) to HMPPS. The lag between the date of publication and the conviction figures is to allow time for most cases to complete the criminal justice process.
In respect of the number of serious further offence convictions by offence type and region in each year since 2010, I refer the honourable Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) to the answers I gave on 20 January 2023 to Question UIN 125451 and on 3 February 2023 to Question UIN 132490.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-01-17/125451
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-01-25/132490
The table below sets out the total number of notifications – that is, where an offender subject to probation supervision has been charged with a qualifying serious further offence (SFO) – which resulted in a conviction for an SFO, by index sentence, for notifications submitted to NOMS/HMPPS between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2014.
The latest figures for 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2021 were published in October 2022 and can be found in in Table 2 of the ‘Serious Further Offence Annual Tables’ which can be accessed by the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-october-to-december-2020
Index Sentence | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 |
Community Supervision | 205 | 153 | 151 | 151 | 147 |
Determinate Prison Sentence | 102 | 100 | 100 | 118 | 116 |
Life Licence | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
IPP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Total | 313 | 257 | 253 | 270 | 275 |
1. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.
2. Index sentence refers to the sentencing disposal imposed by the court which led to probation services supervision of the offender
3. The data only includes convictions for serious further offences that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.
4. The data provided are provisional subject to change when any outstanding cases are concluded at court.
5. Conviction data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where the judicial process concluded that they were responsible.
6. The data for April 2010 to March 2014 has been updated and may differ to the original publication due to data cleansing, re-categorising and re-grouping.
7. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
8. A basic SFO scheme was introduced in 2003 but data was not captured accurately. An electronic case management system was introduced in 2009/10, which recorded all SFOs referred to the central SFO Review Team, but even then, it was a couple of years since we had assurance that local areas were referring all SFO cases to the SFO Review Team to be recorded on the case management system.
9. The list of offences that qualify as SFOs has changed since 2009.
In respect of the number of serious further offence convictions by index sentence and offence type in each year since 2010, I refer the honourable Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) to the answers I have given to Questions UIN 185282 and 185281.
The Ministry of Justice publishes the number of offenders convicted of a serious further offence but do not expect to publish the names, due to the personal nature of the information. Personal data relating to offenders can only be released if to do so would not contravene any of the principles set out in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Serious further offences are incredibly rare, with fewer than 0.5% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service going on to commit serious further offences but each one is investigated fully so we can take action where necessary. We have also injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year into the Probation Service to deliver tougher supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer.
On Wednesday 29 March 2023, we announced the introduction of the Victims and Prisoners Bill. As part of this, Ministers will be given the power to veto the release of the most dangerous offenders, including murderers, rapists and terrorists - putting public protection back as the overriding focus of the parole process. The Bill will also legislate for a new release test for the Parole Board making it clear that public safety is the only priority when making release decisions – to stop a balancing exercise taking into account prisoners’ rights.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of serious further offence notifications that have resulted in a conviction in 2021-22 broken down by original offence type.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Figures on the number of serious further offence notifications that have resulted in a conviction for 2021/22 will be published in October 2023. Figures will be accessible using the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics
Figures are published based on the date of SFO notification (charge) to HMPPS. The lag between the date of publication and the conviction figures is to allow time for most cases to complete the criminal justice process.
In respect of the number of serious further offence convictions by offence type and region in each year since 2010, I refer the honourable Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) to the answers I gave on 20 January 2023 to Question UIN 125451 and on 3 February 2023 to Question UIN 132490.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-01-17/125451
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-01-25/132490
The table below sets out the total number of notifications – that is, where an offender subject to probation supervision has been charged with a qualifying serious further offence (SFO) – which resulted in a conviction for an SFO, by index sentence, for notifications submitted to NOMS/HMPPS between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2014.
The latest figures for 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2021 were published in October 2022 and can be found in in Table 2 of the ‘Serious Further Offence Annual Tables’ which can be accessed by the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-october-to-december-2020
Index Sentence | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 |
Community Supervision | 205 | 153 | 151 | 151 | 147 |
Determinate Prison Sentence | 102 | 100 | 100 | 118 | 116 |
Life Licence | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
IPP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Total | 313 | 257 | 253 | 270 | 275 |
1. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.
2. Index sentence refers to the sentencing disposal imposed by the court which led to probation services supervision of the offender
3. The data only includes convictions for serious further offences that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.
4. The data provided are provisional subject to change when any outstanding cases are concluded at court.
5. Conviction data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where the judicial process concluded that they were responsible.
6. The data for April 2010 to March 2014 has been updated and may differ to the original publication due to data cleansing, re-categorising and re-grouping.
7. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
8. A basic SFO scheme was introduced in 2003 but data was not captured accurately. An electronic case management system was introduced in 2009/10, which recorded all SFOs referred to the central SFO Review Team, but even then, it was a couple of years since we had assurance that local areas were referring all SFO cases to the SFO Review Team to be recorded on the case management system.
9. The list of offences that qualify as SFOs has changed since 2009.
In respect of the number of serious further offence convictions by index sentence and offence type in each year since 2010, I refer the honourable Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) to the answers I have given to Questions UIN 185282 and 185281.
The Ministry of Justice publishes the number of offenders convicted of a serious further offence but do not expect to publish the names, due to the personal nature of the information. Personal data relating to offenders can only be released if to do so would not contravene any of the principles set out in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Serious further offences are incredibly rare, with fewer than 0.5% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service going on to commit serious further offences but each one is investigated fully so we can take action where necessary. We have also injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year into the Probation Service to deliver tougher supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer.
On Wednesday 29 March 2023, we announced the introduction of the Victims and Prisoners Bill. As part of this, Ministers will be given the power to veto the release of the most dangerous offenders, including murderers, rapists and terrorists - putting public protection back as the overriding focus of the parole process. The Bill will also legislate for a new release test for the Parole Board making it clear that public safety is the only priority when making release decisions – to stop a balancing exercise taking into account prisoners’ rights.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Streatham and Croydon North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the names of every offender who has committed a Serious Further Offence since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Figures on the number of serious further offence notifications that have resulted in a conviction for 2021/22 will be published in October 2023. Figures will be accessible using the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics
Figures are published based on the date of SFO notification (charge) to HMPPS. The lag between the date of publication and the conviction figures is to allow time for most cases to complete the criminal justice process.
In respect of the number of serious further offence convictions by offence type and region in each year since 2010, I refer the honourable Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) to the answers I gave on 20 January 2023 to Question UIN 125451 and on 3 February 2023 to Question UIN 132490.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-01-17/125451
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-01-25/132490
The table below sets out the total number of notifications – that is, where an offender subject to probation supervision has been charged with a qualifying serious further offence (SFO) – which resulted in a conviction for an SFO, by index sentence, for notifications submitted to NOMS/HMPPS between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2014.
The latest figures for 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2021 were published in October 2022 and can be found in in Table 2 of the ‘Serious Further Offence Annual Tables’ which can be accessed by the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/proven-reoffending-statistics-october-to-december-2020
Index Sentence | 2009/10 | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 |
Community Supervision | 205 | 153 | 151 | 151 | 147 |
Determinate Prison Sentence | 102 | 100 | 100 | 118 | 116 |
Life Licence | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
IPP | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Total | 313 | 257 | 253 | 270 | 275 |
1. Time period for conviction data relates to the date of SFO notification to HMPPS not the date of conviction.
2. Index sentence refers to the sentencing disposal imposed by the court which led to probation services supervision of the offender
3. The data only includes convictions for serious further offences that have been notified to the national SFO Team, HMPPS.
4. The data provided are provisional subject to change when any outstanding cases are concluded at court.
5. Conviction data also includes cases where the offender committed suicide or died prior to the trial, where the judicial process concluded that they were responsible.
6. The data for April 2010 to March 2014 has been updated and may differ to the original publication due to data cleansing, re-categorising and re-grouping.
7. Data Sources and Quality. We have drawn these figures from administrative IT systems which, as with some large-scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
8. A basic SFO scheme was introduced in 2003 but data was not captured accurately. An electronic case management system was introduced in 2009/10, which recorded all SFOs referred to the central SFO Review Team, but even then, it was a couple of years since we had assurance that local areas were referring all SFO cases to the SFO Review Team to be recorded on the case management system.
9. The list of offences that qualify as SFOs has changed since 2009.
In respect of the number of serious further offence convictions by index sentence and offence type in each year since 2010, I refer the honourable Member for Croydon North (Steve Reed) to the answers I have given to Questions UIN 185282 and 185281.
The Ministry of Justice publishes the number of offenders convicted of a serious further offence but do not expect to publish the names, due to the personal nature of the information. Personal data relating to offenders can only be released if to do so would not contravene any of the principles set out in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Serious further offences are incredibly rare, with fewer than 0.5% of offenders supervised by the Probation Service going on to commit serious further offences but each one is investigated fully so we can take action where necessary. We have also injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year into the Probation Service to deliver tougher supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer.
On Wednesday 29 March 2023, we announced the introduction of the Victims and Prisoners Bill. As part of this, Ministers will be given the power to veto the release of the most dangerous offenders, including murderers, rapists and terrorists - putting public protection back as the overriding focus of the parole process. The Bill will also legislate for a new release test for the Parole Board making it clear that public safety is the only priority when making release decisions – to stop a balancing exercise taking into account prisoners’ rights.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, steps he plans to take to improve the safety of people in prisons.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Ensuring the safety of staff and prisoners whilst in custody is a key priority and we continue to do everything we can to improve the safety outcomes of everybody in the prison estate.
The Prisons Strategy White Paper sets out our vision for prisons of the future, including our ambitious plans to make prisons safer for staff and prisoners.
The right actions to improve safety fundamentally centre on supporting prisons to maintain key safety interventions. We have implemented a strengthened case management approach for prisoners who are assessed as at risk of suicide and self-harm as well as implemented one-to-one key work.
We have announced additional investment in our workforce, expansion of the prison estate and access to healthcare that are vital for delivering safer prisons. Between October 2016 and December 2022, the number of full-time equivalent officers at band 3-5 increased by 3,677. This means staff can provide more one-to-one support for prisoners and better monitor risk to prevent harm.
We have also invested £100 million to improve security in prisons by clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel crime and violence behind bars.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there has been a decrease in the rates of self-harm, assault and suicide in prisons since the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions at the end of March 2022.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The following tables show the rates of self-harm, assault and self-inflicted deaths in prisons.
For deaths the rate covers 12 monthly data to March for 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. For self-harm and assaults this covers 9 months for April to December (latest available) for 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Table 1; Rate of self-inflicted deaths per 1,000 prisoners, England and Wales1, April 2019 to March 2023
Year | Self-inflicted deaths2 |
2019-20 | 1.0 |
2020-21 | 1.0 |
2021-22 | 1.0 |
2022-23 | 1.0 |
(1) Figures include incidents at HMPPS operated Immigration Removal Centres and during contracted out escorts, but exclude incidents at Medway STC
(2) All classifications of deaths remain provisional until confirmed at inquest.
Data Sources and Quality
These figures are derived from the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database. As classification of deaths may change following inquest or as new information emerges, numbers may change from time to time.
Table 2; Rate of self-harm and assault incidents per 1,000 prisoners1,2, England and Wales, April 2019 to December 20223
Time Period | Self-harm4 | Assaults |
April to December 2019 | 583 | 272 |
April to December 2020 | 503 | 170 |
April to December 2021 | 528 | 196 |
April to December 2022 | 530 | 201 |
|
|
|
(1) Figures include incidents at HMPPS operated Immigration Removal Centres and during contracted out escorts, but exclude incidents at Medway STC.
(2) Figures exclude incidents occurring within the youth estate. The youth estate includes incidents occurring within Cookham Wood, Werrington and Wetherby, as well as the youth wing at Feltham and Parc. Figures for incidents occurring within the youth estate are published within the ‘Safety in the children and young people secure estate’ statistics bulletin via the following link - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/safety-in-the-youth-secure-estate-bulletin
(3) The rates are based on the number of incidents and average prison population for the 9 months from April to December each year.
(4) In prisons, as in the community, it is not possible to count self-harm incidents with absolute accuracy. In prison custody, however, such incidents are more likely to be detected and counted. Care needs to be taken when comparing figures shown here with other sources where data may be less complete.
Data Sources and Quality
These figures have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing returns but the detail is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Although shown to the last case, the figures may not be accurate to that level.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance they provide to prisons to support the prevention of suicide in prisons in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Prevention of suicide is a key priority for the Ministry of Justice. Prison Service Instruction 64/2011 on “Rules and guidance for prison staff on managing prisoners who are at risk of harm or death, or who may be a risk to others” provides overarching guidance on prison safety and supports the prevention of suicide in prisons, including through our case management approach for prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm. The instruction sets out mandatory actions and guidance for staff, emphasising the importance of individualised support, multi-disciplinary teamwork, and identifying and addressing an individual’s risks, triggers and protective factors.
In addition, we are phasing in refreshed safety training for staff which includes suicide and self-harm prevention. In partnership with Samaritans, we have developed a suicide prevention learning tool, designed to give staff more confidence in engaging with prisoners who may be at risk of suicide. We have developed guidance on supporting someone who is self-harming, drawing on existing good practice and guidance from the NHS and third sector. This has been distributed nationally, helping to up-skill staff around the subject of self-harm and outline the importance of providing tailored, meaningful support.
We know the risk of suicide can be higher for prisoners in the early days of custody including for those held on remand. Mandatory actions and guidance for staff on the early days in custody includes the requirement to assess all prisoners of any risk that they might harm themselves on arrival. A staff toolkit helps staff to assess risk effectively and promote supportive conversations in the early days of custody.