More than 200 people have died of "non-natural" causes in detention in England and Wales since 2014, the Equality and Human Rights Commission says.

Its report finds there were 202 such deaths in prisons from the start of 2014 to December 2015.

There were 17 deaths "in or following" police custody, including eight people with mental health concerns.

The Prison Service said it took its duty of care very seriously and would keep improving the precautions it took.

The report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a follow-up to its inquiry into non-natural deaths of adults with mental health conditions detained in prisons, police custody or psychiatric hospitals between 2010-2013, published in February 2015.

The progress report updated the data and looked for evidence of the steps taken by the various agencies to implement the inquiry recommendations.

'Going backwards'

The commission said improvements had been made in police custody, psychiatric facilities and jails but called for further action.

"Failure to make progress in reducing the number of avoidable deaths is a national stain that we should no longer tolerate in modern civilised society," said Prof Swaran Singh, EHRC commissioner on adult deaths in detention.

"Progress has been so slow that we have continued to see a large number of tragic cases in the past two years where that responsibility has not been met."

The report acknowledged there had been a reduction in the use of police cells as places of safety for people detained under the Mental Health Act.

It also pointed to a fall in deaths of patients detained in psychiatric hospitals and noted the changes already in place or planned for the future to improve risk assessment and support for prisoners with mental health conditions.

The commission called for legislation to force psychiatric hospitals, prisons and the police to publish details of how they planned to implement the recommendations of investigations and inspections.

A Prison Service spokesman said: "We take our duty of care to prisoners extremely seriously. Staff provide support to prisoners at risk of self-harm and suicide every day and the EHRC has recognised the work that we are doing in this important area.

"We will continue to improve our safer custody support and are working with the Department of Health to reform mental health services in the criminal justice system."