FOI Reference: FOI/2022/4330
You asked
My request is for the release of any correspondence between Scotland's First Minister and the World Economic Forum.
Mainly between October 2019- June 2022 or at least the last two years. Additionally, I would like to request the release of information of suicide statistics from 2019 to this date.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Please see previous FOI response that answers question one World Economic Forum.
Suicide statistics
We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, we do not hold the requested data for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain this data from NRS and NISRA, they can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Our annual Suicides in England and Wales provides data for deaths from suicide, from 1981 to 2020. You can find annual figures for England and Wales in table 1 and England figures in table 2. The 2021 annual update will be published on 6 September 2022.
Most suicides require an inquest, where a coroner investigates the death. The amount of time it takes 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.
Therefore, our most up-to-date analysis for suicide data are our quarterly provisional figures for England, accessible via the following link: Deaths caused by suicide by quarter in England. This dataset provides suicides that have been registered quarterly from 2001 up to Q4 2021.
2022 data
We will publish Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of Deaths caused by suicide in England for 2022 on 6th September 2022.
As such, this information 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. Furthermore, 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.
If you would like to discuss your request further, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.