Almost 1,000 self-harm incidents reported at prison

Leaders at the prison had made improvements in a number of areas, inspectors said

Almost 1,000 incidents of self harm were recorded at a prison in just under a year, a report has found.

While government inspectors identified improvements at HMP Bristol during an inspection in June, they deemed the prison had made "insufficient progress" on suicide and self harm.

A previous report, published in 2023, said the prison had "chronic and intractable" problems and was "one of the most unsafe" in the country.

HM Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said progress made by the governor "should be commended" but it was "fragile".

Of the six concerns highlighted in that report, four were found to have seen good progress, with "reasonable progress" in one and "insufficient process" in the other.

After the 2023 inspection Mr Taylor sent an "urgent notification" letter to the Lord Chancellor, with then-Prisons Minister Damian Hinds saying "urgent action" was being taken.

The most recent report, published on Monday, found that improvements had been made to levels of staffing with previous shortages significantly restricting daily activities for prisoners - leaving most locked in their cells for almost 22 hours a day.

The prison is now fully staffed, the report said, and "able to run a consistent daily routine for prisoners" with activities such as education, work and health care appointments no longer routinely cancelled.

Progress had been made in some areas at the prison, inspectors found

The prison had also made "good progress" in addressing very high levels of violence, reducing incidents by approximately a quarter with a continued downward trend - though "rates of violence remained higher than in similar prisons".

Leaders had used a number of "creative initiatives" to address gang affiliations and debt management, inspectors said, though some lower-level behaviour such as men vaping outside cells went unchallenged.

Another key concern identified in 2023 was illicit drugs being "readily available" to prisoners", but inspectors found that "good progress" had also been made in this area with a "wide range of security actions" introduced to disrupt the supply of drugs into the prison.

Self-harm 'very high'

The only area in which the prison had made insufficient progress was in suicide and self-harm prevention, with two self-inflicted deaths recorded at HMP Bristol since the previous report was published.

Inspectors found rates of self-harm remained "very high", at almost double the average rate at similar prisons.

Since July 2023, there had been 986 incidents of self-harm, with 32 requiring hospital treatment and two investigated as near-fatal incidents.

The report stated that reviews for at-risk prisoners were "on time and mostly thorough", case managers "took too long to carry out welfare checks" and were not always available to react "promptly".

Finally, the report found that leadership had made "reasonable progress" is work to prepare prisoners for release, though "some fragilities" were observed in access to accommodation on release and support for prisoner held on remand.

In a statement in the report Mr Taylor said: "The progress made by the governor [Vanessa Prendergast], her leadership team and staff should be commended; however, this progress is fragile.

"Violence, while reduced, remains higher than in most other reception prisons and levels of self-harm have not yet come down."