FOI Reference: FOI/2021/2627
You asked
Please supply information about the number of suicides in Scotland by profession from 1 April 2020 to 30 March 2021.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for mortality data for England and Wales, based on the information collected at death registration. Therefore, we do not hold the requested information. Scottish mortality data are produced by National Records of Scotland (NRS). They can be contacted via email at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk.
The number of suicides for England and Wales are available here: Suicides in England and Wales: 2019 registrations. This publication will be updated to include 2020 data in September 2021; when a publication date is finalised it will be announced via our release calendar.
Suspected suicide deaths require an inquest, where the coroner investigates the death. The amount of time it takes to hold an inquest causes a delay 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. More information about the impact of registration delays is available here.