PRISON bosses will be stripped of their responsibility for investigating inmate suicides following fierce criticisms that that lessons of the past have not been learned.

The Government announced yesterday that the prisons ombudsman, an independent appointment, would probe all self-inflicted deaths in prisons and probation hostels from April.

The move follows the release of figures revealing that a record 14 women prisoners took their own lives last year, up from nine in 2002.

They included three at Durham jail, the UK's only high security prison for women, where there have been calls for the female unit to be closed.

Wendy Booth, aged 35, from West Yorkshire, who was serving a life sentence for murder, was discovered in her cell by prison staff in November.

The deaths prompted the Howard League for Penal Reform to say that Durham's so-called She Wing was too small and had an unhealthy concentration on "security at all costs".

The prison insisted it was well-run, but admitted staff had little time to devote to vulnerable or depressed prisoners because of overcrowding.

Two men also killed themselves at Durham last year, including Maurice Cowan, 30, from Northumberland, who was found hanged in his cell last month.

Following his death, Mike Newell, the prison governor, called for vulnerable remand prisoners to be housed in bail hostels, rather than high security jails.

New rules will demand the circumstances of every death are established, that possible changes in policy or practice are examined and that relatives are given a proper explanation.

The ombudsman has been promised extra funding to recruit a team of investigating staff from within and outside the prison and probation services.

Paul Goggins, a home office minister, said: "I believe that transferring this remit to the ombudsman will increase public confidence through independent scrutiny of the events leading to a death in custody."