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Abena Oppong-Asare
Main Page: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)Department Debates - View all Abena Oppong-Asare's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(1 year, 2 months ago)
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Abena Oppong-Asare (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab)
The House of Commons Library says there has been no statistically significant change in the rate of suicides in England since 2015. Suicide remains the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK. Why has it taken so long for the Government to bring forward a strategy, and why do they continue to drag their feet over reform to the Mental Health Act? Can the Minister give the House a firm timetable today?
Maria Caulfield
The hon. Lady is not quite right in her statistics. Just before covid we had seen a 20% reduction compared with two decades ago in suicide levels in England. She might be interested to know that in Labour-run Wales suicide rates are higher than in England, and its suicide prevention strategy expired last year. Mental health has been demoted on the shadow Front Bench, too, as we saw from the resignation of the hon. Member for Tooting (Dr Allin-Khan) when the role of shadow mental health Minister was removed from the Opposition Front Bench.