Official Statistics
Safety in custody statistics quarterly update to June 2014
Safety in custody statistics cover deaths, self-harm and assaults in prison custody in England and Wales. This publication updates statistics at a national level up to the end of June 2014.
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Details
The latest National Statistics on Safety in Custody produced by Ministry of Justice were released on 30 October 2014 according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.
The Safety in Custody bulletin contains statistics on deaths in prison custody to end of September 2014 and self-harm and assaults to end of June 2014 for England and Wales.
The key facts are:
- The number of deaths in prison custody increased to 235 in the 12 months to the end of September 2014 from 198 in the same period the previous year. There was an increase in the number of self-inflicted deaths to 87 in the 12 months to September 2014 from 63 in the 12 months to September 2013.
- The number of self-harm incidents has increased to 23,798 incidents in the 12 months to end of June 2014, compared with 23,139 in the previous 12 month period. However, there are differing trends between the male and female estates, with self-harm falling amongst female prisoners, down to 6,117 incidents from 6,251 a year earlier. In contrast, incidents of self-harm amongst male prisoners have increased to 17,681 incidents from 16,888 a year earlier. Despite these differences in trends, females still account for a disproportionate amount of self-harm in prison custody.
- The number of incidents of recorded assaults (including fights) in prison custody has increased to 15,441 in the 12 months to the end of June 2014 compared with 14,045 in June 2013.
- The number of assaults on staff has increased to 3,427 incidents from 3,065 in the 12 months to end of June 2013, the highest number since 2006. The number of serious assaults on staff has increased to 395 incidents from 300 in the previous year.