Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2024 to Question 15053 on Roads: Suicide, if she will publish the operational data with a description of the data quality issues for each of the last ten years.
National Highways understand that suicide is not inevitable, it is preventable, with the vision that no one attempts to take their life on our roads. National Highways uses its Post Collision Fatal Reporting (PCFR) process to internally report fatal incidents, including suspected suicides on the Strategic Road Network. However, unless a coroner rules National Highways does not know if these numbers are correct and the coronial process can take many months to complete. National Highways therefore cannot be confident that every suspected suicide recorded was a confirmed suicide. Unvalidated operational data from PCFR covering the period of 2016 – 2024 is as follows:
Year | Number of Suspected Suicides | Comments |
2016 | 15 | From May onwards |
2017 | 31 | |
2018 | 41 | |
2019 | 40 | |
2020 | 39 | |
2021 | 59 | |
2022 | 59 | |
2023 | 59 | |
2024 | 56 | Up to November 28th |