Deaths in prison custody, England and Wales
The latest year is provisional
Deaths of prisoners in prison custody in England and Wales in each year to September since 2016, by the apparent cause the prison service gives – self-inflicted, natural causes, homicide and other – from the Ministry of Justice's safety in custody statistics.
All deaths
360
Year to Sep 2026
Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:26 UTC- All deaths
- Self-inflicted
- Natural causes
- Homicide
- Other
Source: Ministry of Justice. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
11 periods, newest first
| Period | All deaths | Self-inflicted | Natural causes | Homicide | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year to Sep 2026 | 360 | 66 | 214 | 5 | 75 |
| Year to Sep 2025 | 411 | 97 | 234 | 6 | 74 |
| Year to Sep 2024 | 317 | 88 | 193 | 5 | 31 |
| Year to Sep 2023 | 304 | 93 | 188 | 3 | 20 |
| Year to Sep 2022 | 307 | 75 | 212 | 1 | 19 |
| Year to Sep 2021 | 396 | 83 | 291 | 1 | 21 |
| Year to Sep 2020 | 283 | 72 | 181 | 2 | 28 |
| Year to Sep 2019 | 308 | 91 | 172 | 2 | 43 |
| Year to Sep 2018 | 325 | 90 | 172 | 5 | 58 |
| Year to Sep 2017 | 300 | 80 | 199 | 3 | 18 |
| Year to Sep 2016 | 324 | 111 | 190 | 5 | 18 |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Ministry of Justice
- Check it yourself
- https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 8 November 2026, 13:08 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-june-2026SHA-256 b60abedeb9034d07579127dcb22531d1de889148e3db14db159cdcc68f9930ba · 17,967 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ae214ad39d29f3f9b9b3f67/safety-in-custody-summary-q2-2026_summary_tables.odsSHA-256 dd73bd2aba889f7a85c12a637a62c1d0850c19749064bcaa70f07f6f87355963 · 1,449,904 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:26 UTC Run at 8 November 2026, 13:26 UTC; 55 of 55 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Ministry of Justice; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-08T13:08:53Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 55 of 55 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's accreditation and marks match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 55 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 55 of 55 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's accreditation and marks match |
| Pass | GOV.UK table is current | latest period 2026-09-30 ended 39 days before retrieval (limit 200), from Safety in Custody summary tables to June 2026 |
| Not run | Second official route | No second route publishes these years: the MoJ's Table 2 restates them in the same release, which the checks compare, and its quarterly tables and yearly table since 1978 count quarters and calendar years, not years to September. |
| Pass | Table 1's causes add up | 11 of 11 cases of the years' self-inflicted, natural causes, homicide and other deaths add up to all deaths |
| Pass | Table 2 gives Table 1's figures | 55 of 55 cases of the years' deaths by cause for males and females in Table 2 are Table 1's |
| Pass | Table 2's males and females add up | 55 of 55 cases of the years' deaths by cause of males and of females in Table 2 add up to its males' and females' |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Deaths of prisoners arising from incidents in prison custody in England and Wales, in each year to September, by the apparent cause in HM Prison and Probation Service's classification. The MoJ says its self-inflicted deaths include a wider range of deaths than suicides, and its homicides a wider range than murder; other deaths include accidental deaths and those for which further information is awaited. They include deaths of prisoners released on temporary licence for medical reasons.
- Every classification stays provisional until an inquest confirms it, and the MoJ expects some of the latest two years' other deaths to be reclassified as natural causes or self-inflicted, so recent years are revised: the MoJ marks the latest year provisional and the years it has revised.
- The hub's deaths in prison custody by prison come from the MoJ's yearly table of deaths since 1978, for calendar years.
- If this subject affects you, Samaritans are there day or night, free on 116 123.