My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Claire Ward) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I have today laid before Parliament the Government response to the report of the inquiry into the death of Bernard Lodge, who died at HMP Manchester on 28 August 1998. I published the report of the inquiry on 15 December 2009.

The National Offender Management Service is committed to learning lessons from all deaths in prison custody.