§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will ask the Chief Inspector of Prisons to conduct inquiries into all deaths and serious injuries in prisons; and whether they will provide adequate additional resources for that purpose. [HL758]
§ Lord Falconer of ThorotonMy right honourable friend the Home Secretary launched a three-year safer custody programme in April 2001 aimed at reducing deaths, self-harm and violence in prisons. The programme targets the highest risk prisoners in the highest risk locations, concentrating on six pilot sites. As part of this programme the Prison Service is considering how it can improve and strengthen investigation procedures into deaths in custody to determine not only what happened in an individual case but also how practice might be improved in future to try to prevent further deaths.
The Prison Service has conducted a wide-scale consultation exercise, considering a number of options (including asking HM Chief Inspector of Prisons to conduct such inquiries) to make investigations into deaths in custody more independent. Ministers are considering whether to give responsibility for investigating deaths in prison custody to the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman. In the interim, the Prison Service is doing what it can within available resources to strengthen and improve the current system of investigating deaths in custody. There are no plans at present to introduce routine independent investigations for serious incidents in prisons.
Section 5A(4) 1952 permits the Home Secretary to refer specific matters connected with prisons and prisoners to HM Chief Inspector of Prisons and direct her to report on them. Similarly, the Home Secretary can ask the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman to investigate and report on any prison matter.