Suicide Prevention Strategy

Baroness Brinton Excerpts
Thursday 26th October 2023

(6 months, 2 weeks ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Markham Portrait Lord Markham (Con)
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I thank the noble Baroness for her support for the suicide prevention strategy. It tries to look at the themes behind this issue, of which working to give effective support, communication and training is absolutely key—as is making sure that that is followed up on. The other thing that I want to pull out from the report is the real feeling, in terms of the seven key themes, that suicide prevention is everyone’s business and is something that we all need to be aware of and could learn more about.

Baroness Brinton Portrait Baroness Brinton (LD)
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My Lords, the Minister has outlined how important it is to learn from the experience of people who have considered suicide. Last week, an Information Rights Tribunal asked the DWP to publish its secret report on suicide rates among vulnerable claimants; it has not yet been published despite the fact that it was written in 2019. Can the Minister explain why it still has not been published? If not—I appreciate that this falls under the DWP—can he write to me, because it is clear that we need to learn the lessons of what went wrong?

Lord Markham Portrait Lord Markham (Con)
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Absolutely. I would be happy to write to the noble Baroness.