FOI/2021/2740
You asked
Please supply the number of suicides each year for the past 3 years.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
2016 - 2019 data
Suicides in the England and Wales -- 2019 registrations: This is our latest publication. Data is available annually from 1981 -- 2019.
We also publish Quarterly analysis for England which can be accessed via the following link: Quarterly suicide death registrations in England: 2001 to 2020 registrations and Quarter 1 to Quarter 4 2020 (provisional.
2020 data
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: Quarterly suicide death registrations in England: 2001 to 2020 registrations and Quarter 1 to Quarter 4 2020 (provisional). This provides suicides that have been registered from January to December 2020. The following dataset accompanying this bulletin provides this information broken down by age, sex, and region. Please note, due to the registration delay, most of these deaths would have occurred in 2019.
Suicides in England and Wales 2020 will be published in September/October 2021. As such, the information you have requested is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. This exemption is subject to a public interest test. While we recognise the desirability of information being freely available, we also acknowledge that public authorities must have the freedom to be able to determine their own publication timetables. This allows them to deal with the necessary preparation, administration, and context of publication. Furthermore, public interest is best served through the public having confidence that the information published by ONS is accurate and final. Release on an ad-hoc basis would not achieve this aim and will cause unnecessary confusion if they were to be misrepresented. In this case, exempting the information clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
If you would like to discuss your request further, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.