Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the regional variation in suicide rates; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure the allocation of the NHS mental health budget reflects those variations.

From 2019/20 to 2023/24, we are investing a total of £57 million in suicide prevention through the NHS Long Term Plan. This will see investment in all areas of the country by 2023/24 to support local suicide prevention plans and establish suicide bereavement support services.

The NHS Mental Health Implementation Plan 2019/20 – 2023/24 sets out how funding allocations for suicide reduction programmes will be phased through a targeted allocation process, based on rates of suicide in each sustainability and transformation partnership area, with funding amounts being based on the number of suicides in an area and as a proportion of suicides in England.