Suicide: Males

(asked on 2nd September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of male suicides in each of the last three years.


Answered by
Nadine Dorries Portrait
Nadine Dorries
This question was answered on 14th September 2020

The Government takes male suicides very seriously and is working with partners to address the recent upward trend in male suicide registrations.

In 2018, the number of total suicide registrations in England increased significantly by 570 to 5,021. This increase was driven largely by male suicides. In 2019, the number of male suicide registrations was 5.7% higher than the total in 2018 (3,800 deaths) but this was not a statistically significant increase in the England male suicide rate.

Provisional quarter 1 data for 2020 is consistent with those figures observed in previous years, where the rate has seen an upward trend in quarter one and a potential decrease in quarter 2 provisional suicide registrations, which may be due to COVID-19 related delays in reporting. Men aged 45 to 49 years continue to have the highest suicide rate of all age segments of men.

The annual suicide statistics published by Office for National Statistics reflect suicide registrations not actual suicides (i.e. these relate to dates when the suicide was registered rather than the date of the death itself). In England, all deaths caused by suicide are certified by a coroner following an inquest and cannot be registered until the inquest is completed, which can take months.

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