Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to include the elderly and infirm as high risk groups requiring particular interventions within the Cross-Government Suicide Prevention Workplan.

National statistics show that, since the early 1980s, suicide rates vary with age. Rates peak among the middle-aged (45 to 54 years) and then decrease until the ages of 80 to 84 years, from which they begin to rise. As the 2012 suicide prevention strategy for England makes clear, rates of suicide in men aged over 75 are high. Different risk factors, such as loneliness and physical illness, may be important in this age group.

As set out in the 2019 cross-Government suicide prevention workplan, updates to the workplan will be published alongside future progress reports to the National Suicide Prevention Strategy.

Future updates to the workplan and will consider actions taken across the health sector, and national and local government, to reduce suicide rates in older people.