Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number suicides by patients in the care of the NHS in 2017.

Data on the number of suicides of patients under the care of the National Health Service is not centrally held.

However, the National Quality Improvement Board commissions the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health which provides data on suicides by people in contact with mental health services prior to their death. The latest report estimates that, in 2016, the most recent year available, there were 1,267 suicides by people who were in contact with mental health services in the 12 months prior to death. The report is available at the following link:

https://www.hqip.org.uk/resource/national-confidential-inquiry-into-suicide-and-safety-annual-report-2018/