To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many violent incidents (a) requiring at least one of the parties to attend hospital and (b) resulting in a death there have been in prisons in each of the last five years. (274626)

Every homicide in prison custody is a tragedy. Reducing violence, whatever the level of severity, in prisons is a priority. We are committed to working towards a zero tolerance approach to prison violence. Since 2004, a national strategy has directed every public sector prison to have in place a local violence reduction strategy and since mid 2007 this has been applied to both the public and contracted out estate. A whole prison approach is encouraged, engaging all staff, all disciplines and prisoners in challenging unacceptable behaviour, problem-solving and personal safety.

Data are not held centrally on the numbers attending hospital as a result of violent incidents. However, data are provided in the following table on assault incidents resulting in attendance at hospital as inpatients.

Attendance at hospital is dependent, in part, on the availability of health care facilities within a prison. A large local prison with inpatient facilities may well care for injured prisoners “in house”. A prison without such facilities would send the prisoner to an outside hospital.