WORCESTERSHIRE MPs have welcomed an extra £10 million to be ploughed into prisons to reduce suicides, murders and attacks against prison staff.

There were six deaths in Worcestershire's two prisons last year - four in HMP Hewell in Redditch and two in HMP Long Lartin in South Littleton, near Evesham.

These figures, supplied by the Howard League for Penal Reform, show that of these deaths three at Hewell were self-inflicted and one at Long Lartin.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove announced the extra funding as he conceded the most recent statistics on deaths in custody and violence in jails were "terrible".

He disclosed the move in a letter to the Commons Justice Committee, which warned in a recent report that the issue threatens to "severely undermine" the Government's prisons overhaul.

Figures published by the Ministry of Justice last month showed there were 100 apparent self-inflicted deaths in the year to March - the highest level for more than a decade.

There were more than 20,000 assaults in the 12 months to December, a rise of 27 per cent year-on-year, and nearly 5,000 attacks on staff - a jump of more than a third compared with 2014.

We reported last December how Wayne Ellis died at HMP Long Lartin in South Littleton, near Evesham.

Mr Ellis committed suicide, the coroner concluded, by taking an overdose of tramadol between 8.30pm on January 17 and 8.30am the following day at HMP Long Lartin in cell 2288 (Foxtrot Wing).

Russell Anthony Oliver, aged 46, and Stephen Boorman, aged 30, have been charged with murdering 25-year-old John York at the same prison on May 31 last year.

Nigel Huddleston, MP for Mid Worcestershire where HMP Long Lartin is based said: “The reforms put more focus on rehabilitating offenders including encouraging more purposeful activity inside prisons such as giving prisoners more educational opportunities.

"The Bill will also give prison governors more autonomy to run the prisons in the way they think best.

“I know that at Long Lartin, the person who knows best what works and doesn’t work is the governor - so giving him more power over decisions about what takes place inside his prison seems eminently sensible.”

Worcester MP Robin Walker welcomed the investment.

He said: "Prisons have an essential role to play in keeping the public safe, reforming and rehabilitating criminals but they can only do this if they are kept safe and secure.”

Mr Gove set out a number of steps that have already been taken, including a net increase of prison officers of 530 since January last year, plans to roll out body-worn cameras across the estate and new laws to crack down on new psychoactive substances (NPS) - also known as "legal highs".

He said in addition to the £5 million committed to rolling out body-worn cameras and additional CCTV he has, with immediate effect, allocated an additional £10 million to deal with prison safety issues.