Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of people who have died by suicide during the covid-19 outbreak; and what steps his Department is taking on suicide prevention.

We do not yet have robust data to say what effect, if any, the COVID-19 pandemic has had on suicide rates. Public Health England is currently piloting the development of a national surveillance system to monitor suspected suicide and self-harm, by collecting in near real time data from local systems which can be used to identify patterns of risk and causal factors, to inform national and local responses.

We are nevertheless taking action to support people’s mental health and prevent suicides and self-harm. All National Health Service mental health providers have established 24 hours a day seven days a week urgent mental health helplines and we have announced £10.2 million of additional funding to support mental health charities, including Samaritans and Campaign Against Living Miserably.