HC Deb 18 December 2002 vol 396 cc843-4W
Tim Loughton

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he is taking to reduce the number of suicides in prison. [87475]

Hilary Benn

The general prison population contains a large number of prisoners with a combination of psychiatric disorders, alcohol and drug dependency, family background and relationship problems, histories of self-harm and previous abuse, all of which raise their risk of suicide. Good care and support from staff saves many lives but such instances go largely unreported. The current operating environment is very challenging because an increased prisoner population and movement of prisoners puts a strain on resources and makes it harder to prevent suicides. The Prison Service's approach, in close partnership with outside organisations such as Samaritans, better identify and support those who seem at greatest risk with an approach that focuses on relationships, processes and the physical environment.

The Prison Service's suicide prevention and self-harm reduction programme includes a series of inter-related projects to improve pre-reception, reception and induction arrangements; inter-agency information exchange; prisoner care; detoxification; prisoner peer support, and the learning from investigations into deaths in custody.

Piloting of these projects is focused on six establishments—Wandsworth, Feltham, Eastwood Park, Leeds, Winchester and Birmingham—although others are involved in aspects of the work. An investment of £21.69 million over the three year programme from April 2001 is allowing physical improvements to be made at these six sites, for example to reception and induction areas, and through the installation of more first night centres, safer cells, crisis suites and gated cells that enable staff to watch at-risk prisoners closely. The programme will be subject to an independent quantitative and qualitative evaluation. No resources have at present been allocated to work beyond April 2004.

Thirty full-time suicide prevention co-ordinators (SPCs) were trained and located in the most high risk establishments, and a further 99 mostly part-time SPCs are now operating across the estate. There has been a continuing increase in the numbers of prisoner "Listeners" being recruited in high-risk establishments,

Reparation orders, final warnings, action plan orders and parenting orders made between October 1998 and 30 September 20021
October 1998–March 20002 April–June 20003 July–September 2000 October–December 2000 January–March 2001 April–June 2001
Reparation order 1,270 605 1,800 1,802 2,077 2,196
Final warnings 3,504 4,434 7,274 7,332 7,095 7,657
Action plan order 841 619 2,027 2,236 2,497 2,388
Parenting order 284 144 302 278 255 278
Total 5,899 5,802 11,403 11,648 11,924 12,519

with 608 new Listeners recruited within these establishments between 1 October 2001 and 31 March 2002 alone, and further recruitment and training taking place.

Concurrently, new health care screening procedures have been piloted at 10 establishments and are to be rolled out across the estate. Wing staff will be increasingly supported in their work by in-reach mental health teams and by the establishment where possible of dedicated drug detoxification units.

Mr. Shepherd

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in the period from 28 September 2001 to 27 September 2002, how many inmates of(a) HMP North Sea Camp, (b) HMP Leyhill, (c) HMP Stanford Hill and (d) HMP Kirkham were transferred to closed conditions for breach of the conditions of their community visit or facilities licences; how many of those inmates were subsequently charged with an offence against discipline under Prison Rule 51 Paragraph 8 in connection with the breach and what the licence conditions were that were breached in each case; how many inmates were not charged with an offence under Prison Rule 51 Paragraph 8, but were nevertheless transferred because they were deemed to have behaved inappropriately while on temporary release; what the nature of the inappropriate behaviour was in each case; what conditions of his community visit or facility licence Lord Archer was held to have breached that resulted in his transfer from HMP North Sea Camp to HMP Lincoln on 27 September; and whether he was charged with an offence against discipline in respect of those breaches. [87646]

Hilary Benn

The information requested is not held centrally and I shall write to the hon. Member when it is available.