Self-harm: Young People

Lord Lemos Excerpts

Monday 28th April 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Lemos]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what up-to-date information they have on the level of self-harm among young people under the age of 18; and what plans they have to address the problem.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, published data from NHS England shows that in 2023, 9.4% of 8 to 16 year-olds and 36.8% of 17 to 24 year-olds had tried to harm themselves at some point in their lives. We are committed to identifying children and young people, and adults, who have self-harmed or who are at risk, for tailored or targeted action, which also forms part of delivering the suicide prevention strategy for England.

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for her helpful response, but is she aware of recent research for the WHO? More than a third of 15 year-olds said that they had deliberately self-harmed—one in two girls and one in five boys—but the gender gap is closing. Almost one in four of both girls and boys self-harmed in the last week, and nearly 90% of self-harm incidents involving12 to 17 year-olds are unreported. Perhaps the Minister could outline the Government’s plans for turning around this worrying and worsening trend.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I definitely share my noble friend’s concern about what is a worrying trend, and I can confirm that I am aware of the research to which he refers. In addition to the suicide prevention strategy, we are providing access to a specialist mental health professional in every school in England. We are rolling out Young Futures hubs and recruiting 8,500 mental health workers, and we continue to fund and benefit from the multi-centre study of self-harm to inform the development of policy and clinical practice, in order to tackle the very real and serious problem that my noble friend describes.