Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many suicides have been recorded in each region in England and Wales in the last 12 months.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician

Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

19 November 2021

Dear Lord McCrea,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question regarding the number of suicides that have been recorded in each region in England and Wales in the last 12 months (HL4142).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes annual suicide death registration statistics for England and Wales as part of our annual statistical release for the UK (1,2). The latest available figures were published by the ONS in September 2021 and covered calendar years up to 2020. The ONS also publish quarterly provisional statistics on suicide death registrations in England (3). The ONS hold death registrations for England and Wales; separate figures for Northern Ireland and Scotland are available from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (4) and the National Records of Scotland (5), respectively.

Table 1 shows the number of suicides and age standardised suicide rates for regions in England, and Wales, based on deaths registered in 2020 and July 2020 to June 2021. The figures that are compiled for July 2020 to June 2021 are provisional and subject to small changes. The risk of suicide cannot be ascertained based on number of deaths due to varying populations for each region. Therefore, we have provided age-standardised suicide rates in table 1 to allow for valid comparisons across regions.

ONS mortality statistics for England and Wales are compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration. Deaths caused by suicide are investigated by coroners, causing a delay of around five to six months between the date of death and the date of death registration. As such, with the deaths provided in Table 1, many of these will have occurred several months or even years previously. Data for deaths caused by suicide that occurred in 2020 will be available in 2022, when we have more complete death registrations data.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: Number (6) of suicides (7) and age standardised suicide rates by English regions and Wales, deaths registered in 2020 and July 2020 to June 2021 (8)

Source: Office for National Statistics

Box 1: International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes used to define suicide

(1) https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/latest

(2) Due to operational difficulties, suicides registered in 2020 in Northern Ireland and Scotland were unavailable at the time of analysis, and so this year’s annual release is for England and Wales only. ONS will update the UK figures at a later stage.

(3) https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/quarterlysuicidedeathregistrationsinengland/latest

(4) https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/cause-death/suicide-deaths

(5) https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths/suicides

(6) Figures are for persons aged 10 years and over.

(7) The National Statistics definition of suicide is given in Box 1.

(8) Figure for July 2020 to June 2021 are provisional and subject to small changes.

(9) The area is based on the persons usual residence as provided by the informant upon registration in England and Wales. Figures for English regions and Wales exclude death of non-residents and are based on the latest available postcode boundaries.

(10) Figures are for deaths registered, rather than deaths occurring in each calendar year. Due to the length of time it takes to complete a coroner’s inquest, it can take months or even years for a suicide to be registered. More details can be found in the ‘Suicide Registrations In The UK’ statistical bulletin.

(11) Age-standardised suicide rates per 100,000 population, standardised to the 2013 European Standard Population. Age-standardised rates are used to allow comparison between populations which may contain different proportions of people of different ages.