Ministers have asked the prisons ombudsman for England and Wales to investigate the record number of suicides recorded in jails.

Stephen Shaw will now look at all reported suicides after statistics showed a thirty per cent rise from 2001 to 2002.

The 94 deaths in 2002 have alarmed the government after the figures had fallen from 91 in 1999 to 73 in 2001.

Prisons minister Hilary Benn said he was "saddened and very concerned" about the news. Martin Narey, the director general of the prison service, blamed the rise on overcrowding.