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Prisons in England and Wales have become more violent over the past year, figures published by the Ministry of Justice show.

The safety in custody statistics show:

Assaults in jail were up 9% in the 12 months ending March 2025, reaching 356 assaults per 1,000 prisoners (30,846 assaults). But in the most recent quarter, the rate of assaults was unchanged.

Assaults on staff in jail were up 7% in the 12 months ending March 2025, reaching 122 assaults per 1,000 prisoners (10,568 assaults on staff). But in the most recent quarter, they were down 2.5%.

The rate of serious assaults in jails was up 6% in the 12 months ending March 2025, reaching 39 serious assaults per 1,000 prisoners (3,402 incidents). These figures include serious prisoner-on-prisoner assaults (up 8%) and serious assaults on staff (down 2%).

There were seven homicides in jails in the 12 months ending June 2025, up from none in the previous 12 months.

Source: Guardian - World News