You asked
I would like to know whether there were any suicides reported on either USAF Bentwaters and Woodbridge Suffolk between 1st December 1980 and June 1981. Can you advise me whether such records exist?
We said
Thank you for your query regarding suicide data.
We publish an annual statistical bulletin on suicides in the UK, which is available on our website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2014registrations
The mortality statistics compiled by ONS are based on the information provided at death registration and cover all deaths that occur in England and Wales. Suspected suicides are required to be reported to the local coroner for investigation and all suicides will be certified by a coroner following an inquest. Once the inquest has concluded the death can be registered and will be reported to ONS.
Place of death is recorded as part of the registration process however ONS do not routinely release suicide figures for specific places or establishments as such data is likely to be assessed as disclosive under the ONS Disclosure Control Guidance for Births and Deaths Statistics. More information on this guidance can be found on our website here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/methodologytopicsandstatisticalconcepts/disclosurecontrol/guidanceforbirthanddeathsstatistics
Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate). Such enquiries should be made to: mortality@ons.gov.uk. We recommend that you contact the Mortality Analysis team directly in order to discuss your data requirements in more detail.
As this information is already available to you via this route ONS considers that S21(1) applies to this request and the information does not have to be supplied under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. S21(1) is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied.