Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are proposing to take to reduce the number of suicides on the rail network.

The issue of suicide prevention is an important societal one that has much further reaching consequences than the effect on the railway. Recognising this, the Department for Transport has recently introduced a requirement for train operators to produce a suicide prevention strategy that complies with the Suicide Prevention Strategy and the Suicide Prevention Duty Holders’ Group’s 9 Point Plan, against which they will be assessed and accredited by the British Transport Police (BTP) and the cross-industry Suicide Prevention Duty Holders’ Group. We will continue to work with Network Rail and the BTP to introduce further measures into rail franchising. This supports the work already being done across wider industry to reduce the instance of suicides still further. For example the industry has an established programme of suicide awareness training for frontline railway staff which help them to identify vulnerable people.