FOI REF: FOI-2023-1356

You asked

I would like to request data pertaining to the number of female suicides in the UK where drowning is mentioned on the death certificate. The suicide verdict may be made by the coroner following an inquest or by the police where no inquest was held. Where statistics are split for each of the devolved nations please supply figures for all nations. Please also provide figures for all female suicides from any cause for comparison. Please supply both sets of figures for all years held.

We said

Thank you for your request. 

We are responsible for the production of mortality statistics for deaths registered in England and Wales. This is driven by information collected from death certificates at death registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively. 

We have published the proportion of deaths by suicide by sex and method within table 12 of the following annual publication: Suicides in England and Wales dataset. This is currently available from 1981 to 2021. The number of female deaths by suicide by drowning can be found in column R. All deaths by suicide, split by sex can be found in table 1. 

If you would like to discuss this enquiry further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.