Suicide by occupation 2010 to 2020

You asked

Please can you tell me how many UK based veterinary nurses have committed suicide in each of the years from 2010 to 2020?

Can you provide me with the same information for UK - based veterinarians?

With regards to veterinary nurses, can you tell me whether your data reliably distinguishes between student vet nurses and qualified and registered veterinary nurses?

For each, please could I have a breakdown (by profession, not year) as to the number that committed suicide by:

• overdose by euthatal
• overdose by another veterinary drug
• overdose by a human prescribed drug
• other means

We said

​Thank you for your request.

We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate 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.

Suicide data 2011-2019

Suicides in England and Wales: This publication provides suicide deaths by registration date from 2011 to 2019.

For suicides involving occupation, please see the following publication: Suicide by occupation, England and Wales, 2011 to 2019 registrations.

Data on occupation is coded using the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2010). In all, there are 9 major groups of occupations (for example, skilled trades occupations); 25 sub-major groups (for example, skilled construction and building trades); 90 minor groups (for example, building finishing trades); and more than 350 individual occupations (for example, painters and decorators). Full lists of occupations used in the analysis are reported in the accompanying data tables, and descriptions of these can be found in ONS Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Hierarchy. The report is structured so that it describes larger categories of occupations before moving on to describe risk in specific occupations.

Table four provides suicides by unit group occupation, which we have also provided below.

Notes:

1. Figures are for those aged 20 to 64 years.
2. Figures exclude deaths of non-residents and are based on postcode boundaries as of August 2020.
3. Occupations defined using the Standard Occupation Classification (v.2010). For information on the classification hierarchy, follow the link below: Information on the Standard Occupation Classification
4. Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year. Due to the length of time it takes to hold an inquest, the deaths presented here may have occurred months, or even years, before they were registered. For an idea on the registration delays typically observed with suicides, please use the link below. Information on registration delays

Unfortunately, we do not hold any further analysis showing suicides by veterinary occupation and specific drug.

However, we may be able to create a custom output for you. Information on suicides by occupation, along with other special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales, are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate). Such enquiries would fall outside of the Freedom of Information regime and should be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.

Suicide data 2020

We produce provisional suicide data for England on a quarterly basis, with the latest update including deaths from January to September 2020. The publication explains that the majority of suicides require an inquest, where a coroner must investigate the cause of death. The amount of time taken to hold an inquest causes a lag between the date the death occurred and the date the death is registered. We refer to this as a registration delay and registration delays for deaths caused by suicide tend to be five to six months on average. Because our data is based on death registrations, this delay means that many of the deaths recorded for 2020 would have occurred in 2019. More detailed information can be found in the publication. This publication is expected to be updated at the end of April 2021 with the figures for the final quarter of 2020.

Finalised suicide data for 2020 will be published in September 2021. Our bespoke services for 2020 suicide data will also be available from this date.