FOI Reference: FOI/2021/3411
You asked
Under the Freedom of Information Act would it be possible to have the most up to date figures concerning suicides over the past 5 years. I have had a look on the website, but the most recent report was released in September this year, but only provides figures until July 2020 – over 18 months ago. Could I have some more recent figures please?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry regarding suicide data.
ONS are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from death certificates at death registration.
Our annual Suicides in England and Wales provides data for deaths from suicide, from 1981 to 2020. You can find annual figures for England and Wales in table 1 and England figures in table 2. The update for 2021 is expected to be available in September 2022.
Most suicides require an inquest, where a coroner investigates the death. The amount of time it takes to hold an inquest causes a lag between the date of death and the date of death registration, referred to as a registration delay. Registration delays for deaths caused by suicide tend to be 5 to 6 months on average.
Therefore, our most up-to-date analysis for suicide data are our quarterly provisional figures, accessible via the following link: Deaths caused by suicide by quarter in England. This dataset provides suicides that have been registered quarterly from 2001 up to Q3 2021. Quarterly figures for England are held in table 1.
If you would like to discuss your request further, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.