FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3153
You asked
Please could you provide a raw data set on suicides of farmers in Wales between 2010 and 2021 (latest figures you have). If Wales only figures are not available, please provide the figures for England and Wales.
Please could you also give a detailed breakdown of how many of those deaths by sex, age and location?
We said
Thank you for your request.
We have produced ad hoc analysis on Suicide by occupation, England and Wales, 2011 to 2020 registrations. These datasets provide an insight into suicides by different occupational groups.
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.
There are multiple occupation groups codes attributed to professions:
In table 2 you will find a breakdown of suicides for sub-major occupation groups by sex, skilled agricultural and related trades.
Table 3 contains suicides for minor occupation groups by sex, agricultural and related trades.
If you are looking for a specific health professional occupation, we would suggest looking at table 4. This table contains individual annual figures for Farmers (5111) on row 219. These figures are also split by sex in the same table.
We do not publish this information to a refined location at such a granular level as this would be disclosive. Section 39 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) renders it a criminal offence to disclose information held by the Statistics Board for statistical purposes that would identify an individual or a body corporate. As we are prohibited by law from publishing statistics in which individuals can be identified, we find that Section 44(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies. Section 44 (1) is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied. More information can be found in our disclosure control policy.
Due to suicide registration delays, the raw data we hold is not yet complete enough to be able to create meaningful analysis showing a breakdown for farmer suicides in 2021. Please see our impact of registration delays article for more information. For further help with this request, email health.data@ons.gov.uk.