Written questions by Foy.

How many and what proportion of prison education staff have been made redundant in each of the past 12 months.

The Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service are committed to ensuring that prisoners can access high-quality education and skills provision that supports rehabilitation and reduces re-offending. The contract does not require Education suppliers to provide routine information about redundancies, and as the majority of teaching staff are employed by external providers, it is not possible to provide the information requested.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of (a) a legal code of conduct for and (b) mandatory inspections of the premises of funeral directors.

The Government is thoroughly evaluating all potential next steps to ensure that the high standards upheld by many within the funeral director sector are consistently reflected throughout the entire industry. This includes assessing the potential merits of a legal code of conduct for funeral directors and mandatory inspections of their premises. Further updates on the next steps will be provided in due course.

What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of suicide prevention training provided to (a) prison and (b) probation staff.

All new members of prison staff with prisoner contact receive training on suicide and self-harm prevention, and all staff who undertake key roles relating to risk assessment and case management also receive specific training relating to those roles. This training is subject to regular review and feedback is sought from participants as part of this process. An e-learning module has recently been made available for all staff to access on postvention support following a self-inflicted death in custody, and the effectiveness of this will be reviewed in due course.There are two suicide prevention learning packages for probation staff: a Zero Suicide Alliance package for all staff, and a package aimed at new entrant Professional Qualification in Probation and Probation Service Officers which was developed internally as part of a broader introduction to mental health. Following completion of this latter package the majority of the intended group stated that they felt more prepared to work in this area and more confident about this part of their role. The effectiveness of this learning will continue to be reviewed to ensure that it meets the needs of the business going forward.

If she will take steps to ensure the proposed offence of (a) encouraging or (b) assisting self-harm will not criminalise (i) people or (ii) charities providing support to affected people; whether she plans to issue guidance and training on the proposed offence to (A) police and (B) prosecutors; and if she will consult people with lived experience before drafting legislation.

Section 184 of the Online Safety Act 2023 gave partial effect to a Law Commission recommendation to create an offence of encouraging or assisting self-harm. The proposed new offence of encouraging or assisting serious self-harm intends to replace (in so far as it extends to England and Wales and Northern Ireland) that offence with a broader offence that can be committed by any means of communication, and in any other way (including, for example, direct assistance through the provision of bladed articles with which to self-harm). The person must have intent to encourage or assist the other person to seriously self-harm.As with the current offence in the Online Safety Act, sharing experiences of self-harm or simply discussing the issue (including glorifying or glamourising self-harm), without an intention that another should seriously self-harm, will not be a criminal offence. We recognise the concerns of those offering support services that capturing such behaviour would potentially risk criminalising vulnerable people who merely seek to share their experiences of self-harm with no intention of encouraging others to self-harm.The offence in the Online Safety Act comes from a Law Commission recommendation following a wide-ranging consultation and we will work with criminal justice agencies and others with an interest to update existing guidance and training to reflect the proposed expansion of the offence to include direct assistance to self-harm.