§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give the dates in each of the last three years when an inmate in Wandsworth prison has(a) committed suicide and (b) sought to commit suicide and has needed hospital care.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Tox Cox, dated 17 March 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question asking the dates in each of the last three years when an inmate in Wandsworth has committed suicide or attempted to commit suicide.There were no suicides in 1992, although five attempts were made.Two prisoners killed themselves in 1993, one on 5 December and one on 8 December. In this year there were nineteen unsuccessful attempts at suicide.In 1994 there were two deaths recorded as being death by misadventure, on 17 July and 2 November, and two suicides on 26 July and 20 November. There were 43 suicides attempts in this year.Information on the dates of the suicide attempts is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.