FOI reference: FOI-2023-1641
You asked
I would like to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000:
- The number of suicides within England from 1 January 2020 to 1 November 2023 please.
- Please can this be broken down into male and female and age of suicide.
- Please can this data be provided in an excel spreadsheet.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Our annual Suicides in England and Wales and Deaths cause by suicide by quarter in England publications show the number of suicides by sex and age group up to Q1 2023 (provisional). Both publications give the number of suicides by date of registration and date of occurrence.
Further information for the remaining quarters of 2023 will be published in the future, and as such are exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
As a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions. In this particular case, we must consider the impact of registration delays caused by coroner's inquests on figures showing deaths by suicide, which take, on average, 6 months to complete.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.