Police Custody: Death

Mr. Meacher
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what persons in respect of which any inquests and other legal proceedings have been concluded have died in police custody since 1990; what the (a) date, (b) place and (c) cause of each death was; and what the coroner’s verdict was in each case where there was an inquest.

Mr. Coaker
[holding answer 11 May 2009]: The Home Office was responsible for publishing statistics relating to death following police contact which included date, place, cause of death and the verdict from any coroner’s inquest until 31 March 2004. Since 1 April 2004 the Independent Police Complaints Commission has been responsible for the collation and publication of such data.

The statistics between 1990-2000 are contained within Police Complaints and Discipline Bulletins and separately from 1997 on the Home Office and IPCC websites.

Links are as follows:

From 1990:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/hosbarchive.html

From 1997:

http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/operational-policing/deaths-in-police-custody

And from 1 April 2004:

http://wwwiipcc.gov.uk/index/resources/research/reports_polcustody.htm