Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many armed forces personnel have died from suicide (i) in service and (ii) after leaving the armed forces.

The Government takes the welfare of Service personnel and veterans very seriously. As in society as a whole, the Armed Forces will never be able to eradicate the incidence of suicide, however we are not complacent; any suicide is one too many and a tragedy for the individual.

Defence Statistics (Health) produce an annual National Statistic on suicide in the UK Armed Forces which is released at the end of March every year and is available at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/uk-armed-forces-suicide-and-open-verdict-deaths-index. Between 1999 and 2018 there have been 310 suicides among UK Regular Armed Forces personnel: 292 among males, and 18 among females. There were five coroner-confirmed suicides in 2018 with an additional 16 awaiting verdicts that may result in a suicide verdict once coroner inquests are held.

Suicide data for all veterans of the UK Armed Forces is not captured by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). However, the MOD has commissioned a new study to investigate causes of death, including suicide, among all those who served in the UK Armed Forces from 2001, including those that deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The study will include personnel who are still in service and veterans, including recent Service leavers, and will be updated on an ongoing basis and will compare findings with the general population during the same period: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-study-into-iraq-and-afghanistan-veterans-launched

The MOD also publishes studies on the causes of death, including suicide, of veterans from the 1982 Falklands Campaign (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/causes-of-deaths-among-the-uk-armed-forces-veterans-of-the-1982-falklands-campaign) and from the 1990/91 Gulf Conflict (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/causes-of-deaths-that-occurred-among-the-uk-veterans-of-the-199091-gulf-conflict). To date, both studies show that the suicide rates among veterans were lower than comparative rates in the general population when matched for age and gender.