Harry Cohen (Leyton & Wanstead, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what mechanism is in place to assess the compliance of prison establishments with suicide watch monitoring standards.

Claire Ward (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice; Watford, Labour)

The National Offender Management Service's (NOMS') Standards Audit provides assurance to the Director General and senior managers on the management of risk throughout the service. This is done through objective measurement of performance against standards in establishments and courts. This process supports continuous improvement and informs the issue and review of standards, the dissemination of good practice and implementation of policy.

The standards which establishments are required to meet are specified in Performance Standard 60, Suicide and Self Harm Reduction. Auditing of establishments' performance against Standard 60 is carried out independently by NOMS' Standards Audit.

NOMS has a broad, integrated and evidence-based prisoner suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy that seeks to reduce the distress of all those in prison. This requires proactively identifying prisoners at risk of suicide and self-harm. At-risk prisoners are cared for using Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) procedures.