FOI REF: FOI/2023/5067
You asked
I am writing to request statistics related to suicide attempts and suicides among asylum seekers in various locations. Specifically, I would like to request the following information from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and/or the Office for National Statistics:
The number of suicides and suicide attempts among asylum seekers on Diego Garcia in the past five years.
The number of suicides and suicide attempts among Sri Lankan asylum seekers in the UK in the past five years.
The number of suicides and suicide attempts among asylum seekers in the UK in general in the past five years.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the production of mortality statistics 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.
Our mortality statistics are based on information recorded when deaths occur, are certified, and then registered in England and Wales. Deaths of those usually resident in England or Wales who die abroad are not included in the data. Therefore, unfortunately, we do not hold data on suicides that have occurred on Diego Garcia.
There is also no information recorded as part of the death registration process to inform us if a person was an asylum seeker. However recent analysis on suicide among psychiatric patients who migrated to the UK was recently published by the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health, which may be of interest.
Although not exactly what you have requested, we can create a bespoke tabulation giving the number of suicides in England and Wales to people who were born in Sri Lanka. Such services are subject to legal frameworks, resources and agreement of costs, subject to our ONS Charging policy .
If you would like to request a bespoke dataset, please contact the Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight (HAPI) Customer Service team Health.data@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further.