Self-harm and assaults in prison custody, England and Wales
The latest year is provisional
Incidents of self-harm and of assault in prison custody in England and Wales in each year to June since 2016, in all establishments and in male and female establishments, from the Ministry of Justice's safety in custody statistics.
Self-harm incidents
68,231
Year to Jun 2026 · 29,944 assault incidents
Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:38 UTC- Self-harm incidents
- Self-harm incidents in male establishments
- Self-harm incidents in female establishments
- Assault incidents
- Assault incidents in male establishments
- Assault incidents in female establishments
Source: Ministry of Justice. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
11 periods, newest first
| Period | Self-harm incidents | Self-harm incidents in male establishments | Self-harm incidents in female establishments | Assault incidents | Assault incidents in male establishments | Assault incidents in female establishments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year to Jun 2026 | 68,231 | 49,283 | 18,948 | 29,944 | 27,686 | 2,258 |
| Year to Jun 2025 | 76,211 | 56,009 | 20,202 | 31,282 | 29,140 | 2,142 |
| Year to Jun 2024 | 76,370 | 55,520 | 20,850 | 29,252 | 27,299 | 1,953 |
| Year to Jun 2023 | 64,380 | 44,103 | 20,277 | 23,554 | 22,024 | 1,530 |
| Year to Jun 2022 | 53,021 | 40,755 | 12,266 | 20,553 | 19,301 | 1,252 |
| Year to Jun 2021 | 52,780 | 40,633 | 12,147 | 18,283 | 17,325 | 958 |
| Year to Jun 2020 | 60,189 | 48,240 | 11,949 | 25,951 | 24,729 | 1,222 |
| Year to Jun 2019 | 60,298 | 49,070 | 11,228 | 31,633 | 30,103 | 1,530 |
| Year to Jun 2018 | 49,681 | 40,374 | 9,307 | 32,003 | 30,654 | 1,349 |
| Year to Jun 2017 | 41,208 | 33,692 | 7,516 | 27,233 | 26,190 | 1,043 |
| Year to Jun 2016 | 36,751 | 29,144 | 7,607 | 23,819 | 22,960 | 859 |
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, 13:18 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, 13:38 UTC Run at 8 November 2026, 13:38 UTC; 66 of 66 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Ministry of Justice; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-08T13:18:16Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 66 of 66 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's accreditation and marks match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 66 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 66 of 66 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 2026-06-30 ended 131 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 Tables 3 and 4 restate them in the same release, which the checks compare, and its quarterly tables and yearly tables since 2000 and 2004 count quarters and calendar years, not years to June. |
| Pass | Male and female establishments add up | 22 of 22 cases of the years' incidents in male and female establishments add up to all establishments' |
| Pass | Tables 3 and 4 give Table 1's figures | 66 of 66 cases of the years' incidents of self-harm and assault in all, male and female establishments in Tables 3 and 4 are Table 1's |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Incidents of self-harm and of assault in prison custody in England and Wales, in each year to June, as establishments record them in HM Prison and Probation Service's incident reporting system; the MoJ marks the latest year provisional. Male and female establishments are the type of establishment, which the MoJ says may not be the prisoner's recorded sex.
- Self-harm figures from April 2019 and assault figures from April 2018 leave out incidents in the youth estate, which the MoJ could not split out before then, so the MoJ says the years that span those dates are not comparable with the years before or after.
- One person can self-harm more than once, so incidents are not people: the MoJ gives the number of people who self-harmed apart, and says self-harm in prisons cannot be counted with absolute accuracy. Assaults on staff and between prisoners are both counted in all assault incidents.
- If this subject affects you, Samaritans are there day or night, free on 116 123.