FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4675
You asked
How many suicides have there been between 2020-22 in the following categories (broken down into years- 2020-2021-2022):
- Health professionals
- Medical practitioners
- Psychologists
- Pharmacists
- Ophthalmic opticians
- Dental practitioners
- Veterinarians
- Medical radiographers
- Podiatrists
- Health professionals n.e.c.
- Therapy professionals
- Physiotherapists
- Occupational therapists
- Speech and language therapists
- Therapy professionals n.e.c.
- Nursing and midwifery professionals
- Nurses
- Midwives
We said
Thank you for your request.
2020/2021 data
We hold the following analysis: Suicide by occupation, England and Wales, 2011 to 2021 registrations.
Occupation is reported at the time of death registration by the informant. 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).
The recorded occupation likely reflects the deceased's main lifetime occupation or their occupation at the time of death. The occupation hierarchy tool allows exploration of the hierarchy of the SOC 2010 classification. There are multiple occupation groups codes attributed to professions:
The following codes are Minor Group occupations and can be found on table 3 of the publication.
- 221 Health professionals
- 222 Therapy professionals
- 223 Nursing and midwifery professionals
The following codes are unit group occupations and can be found on table 4 of the publication.
- 2211 Medical practitioners
- 2212 Psychologists
- 2213 Pharmacists
- 2214 Ophthalmic opticians
- 2215 Dental practitioners
- 2216 Veterinarians
- 2217 Medical radiographers
- 2218 Podiatrists
- 2219 Health professionals n.e.c.
- 2221 Physiotherapists
- 2222 Occupational therapists
- 2223 Speech and language therapists
- 2229 Therapy professionals n.e.c.
- 2231 Nurses
- 2232 Midwives
Please note that the numbers detailed here cannot be used to ascertain the risk of suicide among occupations. Differences in numbers of deaths may merely reflect the underlying population structure as opposed to differences in risk.
We have also produced the following user requested data sets:
- Suicide by healthcare related occupations, England, 2011 to 2015 and 2016 to 2020 registrations
- Number of suicides among healthcare workers (persons aged 18 to 64 years) registered in England and Wales during the first six months of 2019 and 2020
2022 data
The latest available suicides statistics are available in the following publication: Quarterly suicide death registrations in England - Office for National Statistics. This publication provides Quarterly suicide death registrations in England: 2001 to 2021 registrations and Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) to Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2022 provisional data.
Please note, the analysis reported in this release cannot be used to show the number of suicides with a date of death in 2022.
All deaths caused by suicide in England are investigated by coroners. Given the length of time it takes to hold an inquest, most deaths are registered around five to six months after they occurred. The registration delay refers to the time lag between the date of death (that is, when the death occurred) and the date the death was registered.
For further information on the impact of registration delays, see Section 7 of our Suicide rates in the UK Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).
We will publish suicides by occupation in 2022 in September 2023, which will allow the inclusion of late registrations which have been referred for Coroner investigation.
As such, the information you have requested is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future.
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.\ 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.
For further information please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.