Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their statement in the Suicide prevention in England: 5-year cross-sector strategy, published on 11 September 2023, that "there needs to be comprehensive research on, and better understanding of national trends and suicide rates in particular groups, including Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people", what steps they are taking to address the higher rate of suicide among Gypsy and Irish Traveller people.

The ambitions outlined in the Suicide Prevention Strategy of September 2023 cover five years. The purpose of the strategy was to set a direction for suicide prevention for all organisations to consider, including national and local government, researchers, and the voluntary, community, and social enterprise sectors.

The Department has sponsored qualitative research from the Health and Wellbeing Alliance Consortium on this topic, which led to the publication in May 2024 of Tackling Mental Health Inequalities for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller People.

As part of this, we have so far sponsored projects exploring gypsy, Roma, and traveller communities’ experiences of suicide and mental health. These projects have been delivered as part of a Department, UK Health Security Agency, and NHS England led Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise Health and Wellbeing Alliance.