You asked
Please could you disclose the figures for how many suicides we have had this year.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We will be unable to begin reporting on suicide deaths, that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, until late 2020 or early 2021.
Most of these deaths are subject to an inquest, where a coroner will investigate the death. The amount of time taken 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.
We produce provisional suicide data for England on a quarterly basis, with the latest update including deaths from January to June 2020. This is for deaths registered in 2020, and due to the registration delay described above, most of these deaths would have occurred in 2019.
Our statistics are based on the date of registration. Please also find data for 2019 as part of our annual suicides release, available via the following link: Suicides in the UK.