Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent discussions he has had with the Chief Coroner on the recording of veteran suicide.

Ministers have regular conversations with interdepartmental colleagues on a range of topics, including the Government’s ongoing commitment to make it as easy as possible to access the clinical and welfare support available to veterans and their families. The Chief Coroner has given coroners clearer guidance so that deaths, including suicide, are recorded more consistently.

The Government continues to invest in mental health support and training whilst individuals are serving in the Armed Forces, as well as significant research to understand and tackle the risks and causes of suicide amongst those who have served. This includes a study commissioned by the MOD to investigate causes of death, including suicide, amongst all those who served in the UK Armed Forces between 2001 and 2014, covering combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2019, we extended this study to include all those who served after 2014, now and into the future. This will be complemented by a new Manchester University study, funded jointly by the MOD and NHS (England), looking at risk factors in the year leading up to a veteran taking their own life. Combined, these studies will provide increasingly robust data, in order to better understand ‘at risk’ groups and support better targeted interventions.