(1 day, 15 hours ago)
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)
I call Lee Pitcher, who will speak for around 15 minutes.
Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered suicide prevention.
Before I begin, I want to share for the benefit of anyone watching or anyone in this Chamber who may ever need it that help is available: 24/7 crisis mental health support can be accessed by calling NHS 111 and selecting option 2, or by calling the Samaritans, whose badge I proudly wear today, on 116 123. I cannot thank the Backbench Business Committee enough for granting this debate in the main Chamber. The Committee’s recognition of just how important it is for this issue to be heard here is in itself hugely symbolic.
Let me start with the worker who was on stand-by, who in the early hours of the morning was called to deal with the death of a man from suicide, who was found in the trees, alone on some open land. That worker, having dealt with the immediate response, then reflected and thought about the true impact of managing that situation. He failed to sleep for the rest of the week, and never once slept well again when on his stand-by duties.
To the family of John, he was a massive West Ham fan who loved Motörhead and the genius of Pink Floyd. His mum, who found him that day, experienced that thing no parents should ever have to endure: their baby, who they once cradled, leaving this world before them.
That worker on stand-by, that cousin of John, that is me. We got that call about John as we prepared to go to another family member’s funeral—that chilling call that no one ever wants to receive. John had decided he could no longer go on living with his demons, and felt that the only way to gain peace was to end his life. Right now, as we speak today, there are many other Johns out there making a similar choice. Like our John, they will be someone’s son, dad, brother, uncle, cousin, friend or colleague.
From that day on, we vowed as a family that the best thing we could do in John’s memory was to ensure that we helped show people a different path, so that that dreaded call could never happen to anyone else. Whether it is by raising funds through marathons, maximising our use of social media to highlight support or, for me, securing this debate, we are all doing everything we can for John. While none of this can bring John back to his gorgeous sister Jacqui, who is watching this in Australia, or to my auntie and uncle, there will be some comfort that his personal fight may prevent others’ pain in the future.
Today, using the privilege of being elected to this place, I will use my voice to try to make a difference. I have shared my story, because I want everyone to remember how common, unfortunately, these situations are; so many of us will tragically get that heartbreaking call about a family member, friend or colleague at some stage in our lives. I am also sharing this because, just by raising the subject in this place, we give suicide prevention a national platform, from which we can strive to share best practice and find new ways to take action to make a difference and save lives.
Compared with other leading causes of death, suicide remains poorly understood. The stigma that still clings to it stops people reaching out and isolates the families left behind. Breaking that stigma requires us to talk openly and honestly in places such as this Chamber. As I am sure you agree, Madam Deputy Speaker, there are not many subjects on which simply having a debate has the potential to save lives, but today we have that opportunity, and my hope is that hon. Members will use it as a chance to shift perceptions and push back stigma, and perhaps it will be heard by someone who needs it.
On 10 September every year we mark World Suicide Prevention Day. It is a chance to remember those we have lost, to stand with those who are struggling and to commit to doing all we can to reduce the number of lives lost. This year’s theme, set by the Samaritans, is interrupting suicidal thoughts, and that is what we must do in this Chamber—interrupt the silence, interrupt the stigma and push for change.
The statistics are stark. In 2023, 7,055 people across the UK lost their lives to suicide. It remains the leading cause of death for men under 50 and for men and women aged 20 to 34, and suicide among teenage girls and young women has nearly doubled in recent years. In Doncaster, where I live, suicide rates are above the national average; 121 lives were lost between 2021 and 2023. In the same period in North Lincolnshire, in which the Isle of Axholme lies, 41 lives were lost. Every life lost is a tragedy, but what those numbers do not show is the ripple effect. Every statistic represents a family and network of friends, colleagues and acquaintances who are all affected. Suicide may often happen alone, but it never happens in isolation.
However, suicide is not inevitable; it is preventable. Before I speak about the asks I have of the Minister and the Government, let me touch on the importance of mental health and building resilience in early life. Mental health problems often start to develop in our teenage years, and even if they do not reach crisis point until much later in life, we need to do something, which is why we cannot leave these conversations until it is too late. We need to start talking to children about mental health from an early age. This has to be done carefully and in an age-appropriate way, but just as we teach our children about eating well and staying active to look after their physical health, we should be helping them to build resilience and wellbeing for their mental health, whether that is through mindfulness, by learning how to manage stress or by knowing where to turn if they need help.
Just as importantly, we need to teach young people—again, at an appropriate time—that seeking help with suicidal thoughts is not a weakness and is not something they need to face alone. It is a medical issue and it needs medical intervention and support. There should be no more shame in reaching out for mental health support than there is in getting a prescription for insulin or picking up an inhaler.
If we can make those lessons part of growing up, we can give the next generation a far stronger chance of living a healthy, hopeful life. That is why it is so important that this Government are committed to putting a mental health professional in every school, helping to build that early resilience and understanding. That help is already in place for nearly 1 million pupils, and it will be there for every child during this Parliament. At this stage, I want to give a shout out for With Me in Mind for the amazing work it does in my area.
I will concentrate on three key areas where I would like the Government to take action. The first area is mandatory suicide prevention training for first responders and better mental health awareness across frontline services. Our police, fire and ambulance services are amazing, and their crews are often the first to respond when someone is in a suicidal crisis. In the year up to March 2025, fire and rescue services were called to more than 3,100 suicide attempts. East Midlands ambulance service alone responded to more than 20,000 incidents in 2024, and the North East ambulance service responded to more than 21,000 incidents—three times the number from just four years before.
The fact is that training on this matter is just not consistent, and we have an opportunity to do more. We know that training works. Evaluation shows that with suicide prevention knowledge, confidence and attitudes improve significantly after training. GPs who complete training are 20% more likely to identify people at risk. Equipping first responders with the skills to spot the signs, start a compassionate conversation and make an intervention will save lives.
The second area is better research into demographic gaps in suicide deaths. We know that the risks are not evenly shared; men are three times more likely to die by suicide than women, and men in deprived areas are five times more likely to do so. Too often, men are told to man up or tough it out, and they are less likely to seek help, confide or access services until it is too late. However, this is about not just how men are taught to act, but how people react to men seeking help. Research shows that nine in 10 men who died by suicide had been in touch with a statutory service in the year before their death, whether it was at A&E, through primary care or even through the criminal justice system, yet too many opportunities to help are missed. If we are serious about tackling the biggest killers, as the Government have promised, we need a clear, evidence-based programme of research into how suicide risk presents in men and how services can respond more effectively. Without that, the mental health strategy risks failing the very group it needs to help the most.
This is not just about a gender gap. People in the most deprived areas are twice as likely to die by suicide. Autistic people face three times the risk of their peers. Gay and bisexual adults face twice the risk. For trans people, the risk of a suicide attempt is four and a half times higher, and for trans youth the risk is nearly six times higher. There are huge differences in death by suicide across ethnic groups, across regions and between different kinds of employment and educational background. These differences need to be studied and understood, just as we would for any disease that affected different demographics in different areas. By studying the different demographics affected, we can learn about the causes, risk factors, preventive or protective factors and paths to recovery.
The third area is a rapid and ambitious roll-out of mental health hubs after next year’s pilots. These hubs could be transformative—local, community-based and accessible without referral or appointment. That is exactly the kind of frictionless support we need to offer. When someone is suicidal, every barrier is a potential barrier too far. No wrong doors, no delays—if someone asks for help, the system must help them. Alongside that, we must support the voluntary and community organisations that are already saving lives every single day, such as Samaritans, Mind, Andy’s Man Club, James’ Place, Men’s Sheds and local groups such as the Jackson Hope Foundation and the Shed on the Isle in my constituency. They provide the human connection that prevents suicide, but they are too often left to rely on their own fundraising. If we are serious about prevention, Government must partner with them, not leave them struggling for survival.
The Government have committed in their manifesto to tackling the biggest killers, including suicide, and to delivering the suicide prevention strategy. I urge Ministers to go faster and further; for some people listening today, time is already running short. Prevention is not just better than cure; for suicide, it is the only chance that some people will ever get. As I said, the theme for World Suicide Prevention Day is interrupting suicidal thoughts. It is the responsibility of each and every one of us to interrupt with training, with research, with services that open doors in every community. Suicide is not inevitable; it is preventable. With the right action, we can and we will save lives.
On Monday, I will be carrying the baton of hope, taking part in a relay across my constituency alongside many others to raise funds and awareness for suicide prevention. That baton is a symbol—a physical icon of mental health. It is a reminder that hope can be carried, shared and passed on to the next person. Our task in this House is to ensure that hope is met with action, so that fewer families face the grief of losing a loved one and more people find the support they need to live.
Several hon. Members rose—
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
As colleagues can see, over 10 Members are hoping to speak. We need to begin winding up by 4.30 pm, to let the Front Benchers contribute, so unfortunately I will have to set a time limit of four minutes to ensure that everyone can get in. I call Liz Twist, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on suicide and self-harm prevention.
Liz Twist (Blaydon and Consett) (Lab)
I start by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for securing this important debate just one day after World Suicide Prevention Day, and for speaking so movingly about his personal experience.
It does not take much scratching below the surface to find out that many of us here in Parliament and across our constituencies have been affected by suicide. An estimated 7,055 suicides were registered in the UK in 2023. Suicide remains the leading cause of death in people under 35, and of men under 50, and each suicide ripples out, affecting family, friends, work colleagues and social groups, leading to an increased risk of suicide in them. It is now some 25 years since my husband Charlie took his own life, and I still see those ripples affecting so many people who knew and loved him. We cannot say it too often: every one of those lives lost to suicide was not a number but a real person, and every life lost to suicide is a tragedy.
As a result of my work over a number of years with the APPG for suicide and self-harm prevention, I have got to know many wonderful organisations, very many of them inspired and run by those with their own experiences of loss, working hard to prevent suicide and to help those families and friends who have lost people to suicide. That includes organisations such as If U Care Share, Body & Soul, Gambling with Lives, Silence of Suicide, SoBs, 3 Dads Walking, Jami, Baton of Hope, James’ Place, The Martin Gallier Project, and the Speak Their Name quilts project, with quilts from the UK on display in Parliament when we return in October, and with the Baton of Hope ending its trip in Westminster the previous Friday. There are so many people who I could name, and I apologise for not naming them, but I see and hear them. I thank them for their work.
I am pleased to have worked with the British Standards Institution over the past 18 months, which will shortly publish suicide prevention guidelines for employers and launch them in this place. There is no single community in this country that is not affected by suicide. But it is also true that some are more affected than others. Deaths of this nature are both a cause and a consequence of health and economic inequalities. In the north-east, our suicide rates have consistently remained higher than the national average, and they have risen steadily over the past decade.
There was so much more that I was going to say, but I will move on to my asks of the Government. I am proud of the work that the Government have carried out so far, from expanding mental health support teams in schools to implementing online harms legislation. But going forward we need to have mechanisms in place to assess public mental health need at a local and national level, tackle emerging issues and support well-evidenced public health interventions to prevent suicides.
I would also like to talk about the online harms that people face. The Government have started to take action, but it is developing all the time. I hope that we can continue to take strong action in that region, and continue to improve the national suicide prevention strategy.
Frank McNally (Coatbridge and Bellshill) (Lab)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for securing this debate and for his incredibly powerful remarks a few moments ago.
Suicide is one of the most pressing public health challenges we face. Behind every statistic is a devastated family, a community shaken and lives changed forever. There are between 650 and 850 deaths to suicide in Scotland every year. My local authority area of North Lanarkshire experiences between 40 and 62 annually. While Parliament rightly debates this national issue and seeks a national response, I want to highlight the work being done in my own community.
Several years ago, the spotlight fell on my area where, despite there being a drop in deaths by suicide in Scotland, communities in Coatbridge and Bellshill and across north Lanarkshire were experiencing near record highs. North Lanarkshire council, working alongside partners in health education, sport and the voluntary sector, have put suicide prevention at the heart of their wellbeing agenda. The suicide prevention strategy is a model of how public services, anchor organisations and grassroots groups can come together, promote early intervention, raise awareness and ensure that support is available at the right time and in the right place. We know that men between the ages of 34 and 54 are the group with the highest risk of completing suicide.
I am proud of the way my community has specifically used sport as a force for change. For many years there was a great partnership with local public services and all of Lanarkshire’s professional football teams. I was involved in that prior to my election to this place. I was told a story in the weeks after that partnership launched that has always remained with me. One of our clubs got a phone call to their main office on a Monday morning from a man who had walked through the turnstiles two days prior for the 3 pm kick-off on the Saturday afternoon. He was clear that it would be his last game, as he was planning to complete suicide that very night. As the game progressed, he noticed the new signage erected around the stadium on suicide prevention. He took a note of the number on the billboard and, in an act of immense bravery, he made a call. His subsequent call on the Monday to the club was to say that going to the game on the Saturday had saved his life.
Just yesterday, the annual North Lanarkshire suicide prevention football tournament took place. It is not only a competition; it is a statement. It is a statement that through sport, camaraderie and community, we can break down stigma, start conversations and let people know that help is there. I am also proud to be wearing the bespoke tartan of Samaritans Scotland, a new tartan to recognise Suicide Prevention Day. I pay tribute to them, as my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme did, and to all those who work so diligently to support my constituents at such a challenging time in their lives.
But suicide prevention still requires national leadership. There are too many still dying, too many stories being cut short, too many chapters not written, too many experiences lost and too many families enduring life sentences of heartbreak. We must ensure that mental health services are properly resourced, that schools and employers are equipped to support those at risk, and that public authorities are given the funding and flexibility to expand the work they are already doing so well. Above all, we must send a clear message from this House that suicide is preventable, that no one should suffer in silence and that help is always at hand.
Kirsteen Sullivan (Bathgate and Linlithgow) (Lab/Co-op)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) on securing this debate and speaking so powerfully.
Last Friday, we had the honour of welcoming the Baton of Hope to Bathgate, Blackburn, Armadale and Linlithgow as it made its way across West Lothian. The county was Scotland’s only stop as the baton travelled the United Kingdom, carrying a message of hope and purpose. The Baton of Hope is, as we have heard, a powerful symbol in the national conversation about suicide prevention. I must give my personal, heartfelt thanks to Donna from Neil’s Hugs Foundation for working so hard to bring the baton to our home. For Donna, the Baton of Hope and Neil’s Hugs Foundation are a beacon of light in the darkest times. Living with the loss of her son, Donna has dedicated her time and love to give others the compassion they need. She does it with an open heart and open arms, wrapping everyone she meets in the biggest hug.
The Baton of Hope’s presence in our community was more than ceremonial; it was a rallying cry and a reminder that hope is not abstract. It is built, carried and passed on by people and a great many community organisations that I have been fortunate to meet. Last week we had the opening of the Bathgate Men’s Shed, led by Alan, which is a lifeline for men facing isolation during retirement or mental health challenges. The entire shed movement is a brilliant example of how workshops are places of camaraderie, purpose and healing.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the inspiring work of everyone involved in Andy’s Man Club across the country, with a special mention of Sandy, who told me about its work in Bathgate. Such organisations—there are too many to mention—often have the reach that health services and local government simply do not. They also do vital prevention work in local communities to keep people mentally well. They are not only transforming lives, but very often saving lives. For example, organisations such as SMILE, led by the inspirational Declan, support children and young people affected by poor mental health. Their counselling, advocacy, outreach and community-building efforts are nothing short of heroic, especially when we consider that they receive no specific funding for the soaring number of referrals from medical services. Another local organisation, EnvironMentalHealth CIC—with June Dickson at the helm—provides lifesaving mental health first aid training in local communities. It meets people where they are with empathy, dignity and understanding. Although we are thankful for the hard work of many organisations, such as those I have mentioned today, we cannot continue to rely on the good will of volunteers and charities to plug the gaps in our mental health system, which is stretched beyond breaking point in Scotland.
The Baton of Hope passed through my constituency, but we cannot let it pass us by in this Chamber today or tomorrow. We must carry it forward with action and political will to ensure that no one in Scotland or the rest of the UK waits until it is too late for the help that they desperately need.
Samantha Niblett (South Derbyshire) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for securing today’s vital debate. This issue is particularly personal for me, and I have been open about it in the House before. I was 11 when my mum first tried to take her own life, and I am so grateful to the Samaritans, whose badge I wear with pride, because it was they who saved her that first time. She was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder and finally got the support and medication she needed, and I am so thankful that she is around today to be the brilliant mum that she is—I know she is watching this right now.
In my 30s, I went through a tough time. Had it not been for my wonderful daughter, I would have liked to switch my “on” button off. I am not alone, because one in four people will have suicidal thoughts, and one in 13 will attempt to take their own life over the course of their life. Forty-five is the age at which a woman is most likely to take her own life, often influenced by hormonal changes ahead of menopause. I am a 45-year-old menopausal woman, so that sobering fact hits hard, and I am grateful for hormone replacement therapy. We need to ensure that more women are able to access the right support when they are going through these changes.
But as Members have said today, suicide does not just affect women. Veterans of all genders living with PTSD have a heightened risk of suicide after serving their country. There was a disturbing increase in suicides by farmers between 2022 and 2023, with more feared because of changes to inheritance tax rules. Suicide is the biggest killer of people under 35 and the biggest killer of men under 50, and we know that there is a significant crisis in men’s mental health. Nationally, there are a lot of organisations that aim to support men with their mental health, such as Andy’s Man Club and men’s sheds. Luckily, in my constituency of South Derbyshire, ManClub was set up last year after a local chef, Craig Riley, tragically died by suicide. Joe Ward, one of the founders and a friend of Craig’s, lives in Melbourne and now helps to run weekly meetings on Monday evenings at Melbourne Assembly Rooms, where men can talk openly without fear of judgment.
This Saturday, the Baton of Hope, a suicide prevention charity, will be touring through Derbyshire. It was started by two fathers whose sons tragically died by suicide. One of those fathers, Mike McCarthy, along with others affected or bereaved by suicide, will be stopping by Elvaston Castle in South Derbyshire on their tour, and I wish them all the best. I cannot wait to meet them in Parliament in December with my fellow Derbyshire MPs.
I want to live in a society in which no one ever feels like suicide is their only option. People deserve holistic and accessible mental health support through access to medication and/or affordable therapies. That is why I am so glad that the Government are fixing our precious NHS. But this is about so much more than healthcare and treating people with mental health issues; it is about preventing them from feeling suicidal in the first place—and so much of that comes from a greater sense of security, and hopefulness instead of hopelessness. Hope is so much easier to have when people have a secure home, good, well-paid jobs, a sense of purpose and a united feeling of community. I know that this Government desperately want to ensure that everyone has that, and that they are striving really hard to deliver it.
Jacob Collier (Burton and Uttoxeter) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher), and I congratulate my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Samantha Niblett), on her powerful speech.
I welcome the conversation that we, as a country, are having about mental health, because every community has a story where lives have been lost, and my constituency is no different. Helena Markey went to my school, de Ferrers, and was in the year below me. I still remember her smile, which would light up any room. On 10 September 2015, she passed away after jumping into the path of a vehicle. She was just 17. It shocked our school community. It shocked our local community. A young life with so much potential and so much to give to the world was taken away from us. Weeks before Helena died, she received her exam feedback and was considering her options for year 13. She became very distressed about the results and would later go on to take her own life. Helena’s parents were completely unaware of just how upset she had become.
I have been working with Helena’s incredible parents, Glen and Sharron Markey, since my election, and have been supporting them on their Smile4Helena campaign, which aims to change the Department for Education’s guidance to schools to ensure that they notify parents if a pupil becomes distressed during their results feedback. Glen and Sharron believe that just a simple phone call to them about Helena’s distress would have meant that they could have gone and picked her up from school, and that would have saved her life; they could have talked her through that situation and got through it together. We are seeking a meeting with the new Schools Minister to ensure that what happened to Helena does not happen to any other young person. I would be grateful if the Minister could use his good offices to assist with that.
The key to mental health support is talking and being open with each other about the challenges that we all face. It is about not just the investment that we need in mental health crisis services, but front-loading that into preventive support. That is why I believe that the Government’s plan for mental health hubs, and the increase in the number of mental health counsellors, are so important.
Locally, there are so many people who support others to open up about their mental health, including the Sexual Abuse Rape Advice Centre or Sarac, Burton YMCA, Burton and District Mind, BAC O’Connor and those, like Andy’s Man Club, that are looking to set up in Burton and Uttoxeter. I pay tribute to all those organisations; they save lives every single day, even if they do not know it.
We owe it to Helena, her family and every young person in this country to do better—to create a culture where no one suffers in silence, where families are kept informed and where the right support is there at the right time. I ask the Minister to reaffirm our shared commitment to building a system that catches young people before they fall, because behind every statistic is a life, a family and a future. If by making changes we can prevent just one more family from experiencing the heartbreak that happened to the Markeys, then it will be worth it.
Sojan Joseph (Ashford) (Lab)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for securing the debate, and I congratulate him on his very touching speech. The clear message coming from the House today is that suicides are preventable. Defeating stigma is essential, and the more that we can raise this issue in Parliament, the more we can do to help remove that stigma.
This Government inherited a mental health crisis. More than a million people who are in need of mental health support are not getting the care that they so desperately require. The suicide rate is now higher than it has been at any time in the 21st century. The pledge by Ministers to ensure that mental health gets the same attention and focus as physical health is an important one. It was talked about for 14 years when the Conservative party was in power, but there was little progress. I genuinely hope that under this Government things will finally change. With that in mind, will my hon. Friend the Minister update the House on the progress being made to tackle mental health waiting lists? Research from Rethink Mental Illness has shown that 12 times as many people have to wait 18 months or more for mental health treatment compared with the wait for treatment for physical health.
It is necessary to discuss mental health provision in this debate; after all, the link between suicide and mental illness is well established.
Ben Coleman (Chelsea and Fulham) (Lab)
Does my hon. Friend agree that we should also look at the impact on people’s mental health of online gambling, which is responsible for between 117 and 496 suicides a year—figures repeated in our Health and Social Care Committee report? My constituent Jack lost his son Arthur to gambling-related suicide aged only 19, after only six months. It is a tragic situation. Does my hon. Friend agree that gambling should be seen as a public health issue, that in future it should be regulated not by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport but by the Department of Health and Social Care, and that the DHSC should launch a public health strategy to tackle gambling as a cause of suicide?
Sojan Joseph
I agree with my hon. Friend that not all suicides are linked solely to mental health. I was about to say that various social issues need to be tackled as well. It is it is important that we do not see suicide prevention solely through the prism of mental health. Indeed, many of those who die by suicide have either had no contact with mental health services or shown no signs of mental ill health. It is also important to point out that not everyone who dies by suicide has a diagnosed mental illness. For those at risk of suicide, a complex range of individual, relationship, community or societal factors can be at play.
As the suicide prevention strategy makes clear, common risk factors that are linked to suicide include physical illness, financial difficulty and economic adversity, gambling, alcohol and drug misuse, social isolation and loneliness, and domestic abuse. Although addressing suicide prevention can include mental health, the strategy emphasises that it also goes well beyond these issues. If we see suicide prevention just as a mental health issue, those people in our communities who may not meet the criteria for a mental health diagnosis but are still in acute distress can end up being forgotten. Perceiving suicide just as a mental health issue also puts the responsibility mainly on mental health services, when in reality local authorities, employers, schools, the criminal justice system and wider society all have roles to play. When we talk about suicide prevention, we should therefore also talk about early intervention in schools, universities, places of work and community groups.
It is worth mentioning the great work done by charities—many names have already been mentioned. I congratulate the recently opened Ashford Safe Haven, which is based at William Harvey hospital. It offers a walk-in service every evening for people who are in crisis or feel they are heading towards crisis. A few months ago, I visited the safe haven and met some of the staff to hear about the support they provide and how they help to create staying well and crisis plans, as well as supporting people to access other services and organisations that may be useful to them. It is a great resource for people in our community and I hope that the East Kent hospitals trust is successful in its bid for funding for a round-the-clock walk-in service. Working with suicide prevention charities can complement the services offered by the NHS and bridge gaps in provision. We should also ensure that the health system becomes more effective in signposting the services that are offered by suicide prevention charities.
While I will always lobby for meaningful change in the mental health system, I also know that talking about suicide prevention just as another issue for our mental health services risks narrowing the conversation and excluding others who might need help. I hope that today’s debate has helped to make it easier for those watching who might need help now or in the future to get the right help at the right time.
Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) on securing this debate. I will focus my contribution on the suicide risks during the perinatal period, which is the period from pregnancy through to the year after a child’s birth.
I have spoken in the House before about the tragic death of my wonderful friend Sophie, who took her own life four years ago, leaving behind her husband and her three little girls aged six, three and just 10 weeks old. I have been feeling the sadness of her death again this week, looking at the photos of her youngest now setting off to primary school for the first time, beaming with pride, and I know Sophie would have been so proud too.
I still vividly recall the shock of the moment I learned that she had died when the message came through from her husband. It was only after we lost her that I learned just what a risk there is of suicide in this period of life. One in four people experience some form of post-natal depression or anxiety, which is still poorly recognised as an issue generally, and it is something I campaign on. The vast majority go on to recover, but for some people it is very serious, and for some it is so unbearable that they end their lives. The leading cause of death for women in that period from six weeks to a year after the birth of their child is suicide.
The Maternal Mental Health Alliance has delved into the data and found some more alarming details—in particular, the persistent social, economic and racial inequalities in who dies and who survives. Women in the most deprived areas have much higher rates of death. Black women are more than twice as likely to die as white women, and women of Asian and mixed ethnic backgrounds also face elevated risks.
With these risks and Sophie’s death in mind, I want to offer three reflections. The first is that we are all vulnerable—each and every one of us. Of the women who die by suicide, nearly half have known mental health problems, but the rest do not. It is a time when the social pressures are really great. People expect you to be revelling in the joy of the new baby, but the reality for many is that there are challenges in caring for the baby: not enough sleep, not enough company, feelings of loneliness, failure and guilt, and the loss of the sense of self—the old you that you knew before having children, which you fear is gone forever. This can make it a very difficult period for many women, including people who have not struggled with their mental health before. It is so important that we are all cognisant of this in ourselves and others around us.
My second reflection is that we all carry a responsibility to each other. I still look back on Sophie’s death and blame myself; I ask whether I could have done more. As Paul Doble, a fascinating therapist working in my constituency of Aylesbury, recently put it to me, the reality is that we cannot prevent every suicide, but we must never be afraid to try. The real question is how we support people better when they are suicidal, knowing that our compassion, care and presence may not remove every risk but can make life more bearable, and our question may be the one that interrupts their suicidal thoughts and leads them to different choices. Again, that is something we must all be cognisant of.
My third point is that the Government have to keep taking suicide risk and suicide prevention really seriously, as I know they do. I hope we will hear more on the suicide prevention strategy from the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow South West (Dr Ahmed), who I welcome to his place. We know that the care a suicidal person receives can make a big difference. We have some fantastic specialist perinatal mental health services, but I have heard from so many women who cannot access them. Suicide risk needs to be assessed in all the routine maternity care a woman receives, and support given if necessary. The same is true of so many other parts of the NHS and other public services, where action can make the difference between life and death. The role of public health interventions in this—for example, social and emotional learning programmes in schools—is crucial, too.
Conscious of time, I will end it there, but I hope that this World Suicide Prevention Day is a turning point in saving lives and tackling this immense challenge in our society.
Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for securing this very important debate.
May 1997 is etched on my memory for two very different reasons: first, the elation of 1 May and the election of the first Labour Government in 18 years, and then, just a few weeks later, the death by suicide of a good friend.
This debate is not just personal to me but is of great importance for far too many of my constituents. According to Department of Health and Social Care statistics, Cumberland has the second highest suicide rate in England. Over one in five adults in Carlisle have been diagnosed with depression, placing us sixth highest in England and Wales. My constituency is home to a large rural and farming population, and we know that rural isolation is a major contributor to poor mental health and suicide risk. I pay particular tribute to the work of the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Organisation, which provides tailored mental health support to our farming communities. I also highlight the work of field nurses across the rural north—specialist nurses who visit auction marts to support farmers, their staff andtheir families with their physical and mental health.
Support groups are also making a huge difference. Andy’s Man Club, which has been mentioned, opened in Carlisle earlier this year, and has already welcomed more than 2,000 men who are seeking support and find the meetings a safe place to talk and share their experiences. I recognise the work of Mal Craghill in Brampton, to the north-east of the city of Carlisle. Until merging his Brampton Mentalk group with Andy’s Man Club last month, Mal ran the club for over two years. His leadership and honesty have helped so many men to feel less alone. I thank him for his work.
Carlisle Happy Mums offers peer support for women experiencing post-natal depression, anxiety and other mental health challenges. Its work is compassionate, community driven and essential. Those are just a few of the excellent organisations that help our communities and the people in them to access the support that they need. We owe them all our sincere thanks.
Suicide prevention must be a whole-of-society effort. That message was carried by the Baton of Hope when it came to my constituency last Sunday. I welcome the steps that the Government are taking to overhaul the Mental Health Act through the Mental Health Bill, and to invest in mental health in schools, with nearly 1 million young people gaining access to support this year. Those are important reforms, and I hope that they will be matched by continued investment in the community-based services that I have touched on.
On occasions like this, I feel that our House and this Chamber are at their best. It is incumbent on us all to unite to ensure that, no matter where someone lives—be it in a community that is prospering or one facing hardship, or in a city, in a village or on a farm—they are able to access the support that they need, when they need it.
Peter Swallow (Bracknell) (Lab)
It is an honour to take part in the debate, which was so powerfully opened by my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher). I am grateful to colleagues for ensuring that suicide prevention remains at the top of our agenda.
As others have mentioned, yesterday was World Suicide Prevention Day, so this debate is timely. Suicide is one of the biggest killers in this country. As other Members have touched on so well, behind every statistic is a friend, a mum, a cousin, a husband—each one loved by friends and family. Over the summer recess, I visited Bracknell Samaritans, where I saw for myself the extraordinary work that it does as part of a successful and growing national network. Its volunteers are there for people at their darkest moments, and we should never underestimate the number of lives that they save. I thank them for everything that they do in Bracknell and beyond.
Last year, I had the privilege of chairing a roundtable on autism and suicide prevention, organised by Autism Action. It shone a light on the disproportionate effect that suicide has on those with autism. According to the National Autistic Society, 66% of autistic adults have experienced suicidal thoughts—nine times higher than for the general population. The society also reports that as much as 11% of people who die by suicide have either an autism diagnosis or autism traits. Those figures are shocking and demand action. The insights and voices of autistic people and their families, which I heard at the roundtable and in further conversations, have been invaluable in shaping my understanding of the scale of the challenge and the need for action.
Recent research from Autism Action, the University of Cambridge and Bournemouth University—the largest study of autism and suicide to date—provides further insight. Almost 1,400 autistic people took part. The study identified loneliness, hopelessness and feelings of failure as key drivers of suicidal thoughts; many reported difficulties in getting the support they needed, long waiting times for diagnosis and a lack of post-diagnostic help. Our national strategies do recognise autistic people as a priority group, but there is more to do to ensure that recognition translates into practical action. An updated suicide prevention strategy should specifically address the needs of autistic people, and the next autism strategy should explicitly consider suicidality, with the two approaches working hand in hand, rather than separately.
While there is more to be done nationally to address mental health issues, I am proud that local organisations in Bracknell are already leading the way: Walks for Wellbeing and Sandhurst Health Walks; Youthline and Create Hope; Stepping Stones Recovery College; Sandhurst counselling service, which, I am very happy to say, is back up and running after a difficult year; Andy’s Man Club and the Crowthorne and Wokingham Without men’s shed; and, of course, Bracknell Samaritans. These groups are lifelines, and they deserve recognition and support for the critical services they provide. I am pleased to say I have met each of them and can personally vouch for the hard work they do in our community.
I want to end with a message to anyone watching or listening today who may be struggling: help is available. Whether by calling the Samaritans on 116 123, through local services in Bracknell Forest or through friends, family and community, there are people ready to listen and to help. Please reach out.
Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for securing this debate on what I think we can all agree is a critical national public health issue. It is a timely debate given yesterday’s World Suicide Prevention Day, promoted by the wonderful Samaritans, who do so much good work, and whose badge I am proud to be wearing today.
Figures from the House of Commons Library highlight the previous long-term decline in suicides up to the year 2000 has seen some reversal in recent years, with 2023 seeing the highest number since 1999. It is right, therefore, that when the Government committed in our manifesto last year to a renewed drive to tackle the biggest killers, suicide was included. The recently published 10-year health plan sets out how the Government intend to put into practice the aim of transforming our mental health system so that support is available when people need it. I very much welcome the commitment to a cross-Government approach to suicide prevention, which mirrors the successful strategies that I have seen in my time in local government.
I have been pleased, since my election last year, to have been able to work with an excellent charity that has been mentioned by others, Gambling with Lives, to highlight the troubling link between gambling and suicide, with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities estimating that there are up to 500 gambling-related suicides each year. I agree with both Gambling for Lives and my hon. Friend the Member for Chelsea and Fulham (Ben Coleman) that the responsibility for gambling should be transferred to the Department of Health and Social Care, and that there should be investigation of all gambling- related suicides and lessons learned from every case so that we can prevent future deaths. At present, coroners do not always correctly identify the link between gambling and suicide, and that needs to change. I hope that Ministers will give full consideration to both those calls.
Local suicide prevention strategies have a crucial role to play. In my previous life, I was cabinet member for health on Lambeth council. We launched our own local suicide prevention strategy with the aim of bringing down the numbers of suicides, which saw the council target support at the groups identified by evidence as the most at risk: older men, the LGBTQ+ community, and a range of others. We rolled out suicide prevention training to everyone, free of charge, so that all residents were able to access it, but aimed the support particularly, as others have said, at key organisations in touch with at-risk groups in the borough. The training was all about how to have effective, potentially lifesaving conversations with people in a safe way, and we saw great take-up. Crucially, the council also launched a borough-wide mental health campaign aimed at supporting people on their mental health journey and at providing advice and wellbeing information on how to access services at the right time. That period saw a decline in the number of suicides, which I hope will continue.
In my constituency, I pay tribute to the newly constituted Dartford Safe Haven—a little like the Ashford Safe Haven mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Sojan Joseph)—which, working closely with GPs, provides a walk-in service, out of hours, with the crisis support that so many need. I also pay tribute to North Kent Mind, which supplements local mental health services, providing vital additional help for those with mental health support needs. Let us all commit to making suicide prevention a successful national mission.
Amanda Hack (North West Leicestershire) (Lab)
I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate and my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for securing it and for making his opening remarks in such an amazing way. We heard the devastating numbers and the personal experience of the impact that suicide has had on our communities and on ourselves. These people were important to us and, I hope, by discussing this difficult subject not only can we offer comfort and support, but provide the hope that we can put in place improvements to prevent someone else from taking their own life.
I want to speak about two friends: my childhood friend who lost her dad to suicide when we were just in our teens; and one who made the decision to take his own life just a couple of months ago. It was not until my friend’s funeral in July that I reflected that while those suicides were more than three decades apart, the similarities between the two men who made that decision were stark. They were both men in their early 50s, successful and running their own businesses. They were amazing family men who were well respected in their work and in their social circles. Yet they still both made that ultimate decision to take their own lives, leaving those left behind to unpack their grief and sorrow with the overriding question: “Why?”
In the face of such loss, we often search for answers—something to help us make sense of the silence and the unanswered questions. While no single explanation can ever truly account for an individual’s decision, patterns begin to emerge when we look more closely at the broader picture. We can look at age and gender, and the risk of suicide is highest among men aged between 45 and 54. It is three times more common among men than women—a gap that only continues to grow. We can look regionally too. Between 2021 and 2023, the east midlands had a suicide rate of 11.3 deaths per 100,000 people, placing us above the national average and making us the fifth highest of the English regions. We also need to look nationally, and we have to create some hope.
Local authorities develop strategies to prevent suicide, but the funding for voluntary services has, sadly, gone awry in recent years. We need the much more important national debate. We can look at the limits of existing mental health support and the reality that nearly a third of people who die by suicide are in contact with mental health services in the 12 months leading up to their death.
Those are of course important insights, but they are just insights, just statistics. We have to search for answers to this difficult question. Although we might never know why someone decides to take their own life, what matters is what we do with the information that we do know. We know that we have to build resilience for young people in schools, teaching our young people how to promote good mental health and wellbeing in themselves. We need to equip people with the language to talk about how they feel, the confidence to ask for help, and the tools to support themselves and each other through the inevitable challenges in their life. We can also look to our local organisations, such as the Leg Up Project in my constituency. Its core philosophy is about building resilience, and tackling loneliness and isolation.
The Government’s commitment to transform mental health service with 24/7 neighbourhood mental health centres is a fantastic start, but it will mean nothing if we are not giving people the tools that they need to communicate to get themselves there in the first place. Prevention of deaths by suicide will come from continued conversations, a growing understanding of the mental health landscape and hearing the voices of those whom we have lost and those of us struggling now—those voices are the ones that truly matter.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
We now come to the Front Benchers, and I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, Dr Danny Chambers. We have three doctors on the Front Benches.
Dr Danny Chambers (Winchester) (LD)
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I always say that real doctors treat more than one species.
I thank the hon. Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for securing the debate and speaking so emotively, as so many hon. Members have today. I know from personal experience of talking about loss due to suicide in this Chamber that the pain never goes away, no matter how long ago it was. I particularly commend the hon. Member for North West Leicestershire (Amanda Hack) for speaking about such a recent bereavement, which is a very difficult thing to do.
Other hon. Members have mentioned that only one in four people who take their own lives are known to clinical mental health services. That is why the charities and community organisations are so important. I recently visited the Winchester branch of the Samaritans, and I met Wayne Fletcher, the director. It was so impressive and inspiring to see the number of volunteers involved in making sure that there is 24-hour access for someone who needs help in the darkest and loneliest times; in the middle of the night and early in the morning, someone can pick up the phone and a volunteer will be waiting to speak to someone. It is incredible.
Other hon. Members have mentioned the Men’s Shed. Two weeks ago, I visited the Men’s Shed in Alresford. Its lease is up, so we will work with the town council to find it a new location. The connection, the friendship, the sense of purpose and the mentorship are vital, and it becomes a lifesaving community.
I had a message from a fellow vet in Winchester, Alison Moores. She said that her 15-year-old son, Sam, took his own life earlier this year. She told me:
“At the weekend I went with three of his school friends and their mums to Sam’s grave. Seeing 16-year-olds crying at the grave of their best friend was heartbreaking. The loss of my son is so horrific I can’t even begin to describe it. We have raised over £30,000 for Papyrus but they still need more. I hope we’ve made a difference in saving another child’s life.”
We know that charity fundraising is harder than ever in the current economic climate, and that all three of the organisations I have mentioned, plus others, rely on the generosity of the public and the people who are working so hard to fundraise for them.
I would like to ask, in the most constructive way possible and with no party-political agenda—because I know all hon. Members care deeply about this issue and that the Minister has a genuine commitment to suicide prevention—about the Government’s decision to end the voluntary community and social enterprise suicide prevention grant. That funding supports organisations such as Samaritans, Papyrus and the Men’s Sheds, which all play a vital role in reaching people who may never come into contact with mental health services. Is there any scope, through cross-party pressure or engagement with Treasury colleagues, to look again at how we can sustain support for those lifesaving organisations at a time when suicides are at a 25-year high?
I finish by paying tribute to Archie Pond, a 19-year-old constituent of mine who took his own life last year. Last month, I met his father, Martyn, who has been relentlessly fundraising for Young Minds. I am always so impressed that someone can turn that sort of heartbreak into something so positive.
One of my core team is a retired clinical psychologist, Peter Wilcock, who helped so much before the general election and has done so especially since I was made the mental health spokesperson. I put on record my thanks to him for his efforts and his invaluable expertise on this subject.
Dr Luke Evans (Hinckley and Bosworth) (Con)
I thank the hon. Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher). He honours John by securing the debate. All hon. Members who have spoken have honoured respectively the people they held so dear, in the most powerful way possible by turning personal grief into public purpose. I therefore thank them all for giving their time to speak.
There was a TikTok video that went viral. It opens with a young woman energetically and innocently asking:
“Be honest: who do you call whenever you’re at your lowest? Who’s that one person?”
The stitched video replies come in, with men answering. The replies are harrowing and insightful:
“Nobody. I’m a man. No one cares.”
“Not a single soul.”
“Nobody.”
“No one, cause I am all alone.”
“I think I speak for a lot of people when I say I don’t call anyone.”
“Nobody. I’m a guy—no one gives a s***”
“Speaking for the guys, literally no one.”
“You all call someone?”
“There’s no one. Nobody who cares.”
“No one. I’m a man. No one cares.”
“Not a single person. I wouldn’t turn to a single person on this earth as they will use it against me.”
“I wouldn’t call anyone.”
“What—we can call somebody?”
That small insight from a seemingly jokey platform hits on what we—the House and wider society—must look at to try to understand why men feel they are not valued. Why do they feel they cannot call someone? Why do they fear doing so will be used against them? Why do they fear asking for help? Many hide in plain sight, struggling and battling until it is too late. After all, we know from the Samaritans that about two thirds of suicide victims are not known to mental health services.
Hon. Members may wonder why I am choosing to focus my comments on men when the latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows that suicide rates are at their highest level since 1999. As we have heard, men account for three quarters of all suicides in the UK. The latest paper by the Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys puts that in stark light. It showed that more men under 50 die in the UK due to suicide than for any other reason; 14 men every day die by suicide in the UK; 74% of all suicides are male; three times as many men die by suicide every year than die in a vehicle accident; and by 2023, over 90,000 men in England and Wales had died by suicide this century. That is enough to fill Wembley stadium.
There is so much to do in this area. I want to highlight the focus and progress of the previous Government. Through the NHS long-term plan, an additional £57 million was provided by the former Conservative Government between 2019-20 and 2023-24 to fund suicide prevention and bereavement services in every local authority. My former colleague Sajid Javid, who was touched tragically by the experience of losing his own brother to suicide, was instrumental in starting the development of the suicide prevention strategy, which was published in 2023. Key initiatives included the development of a new nationwide, near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system that aimed to provide early detection and timely action to address changes in suicide rates. The strategy in its entirety set out over 100 actions to make progress across Government Departments, the NHS, the voluntary sector and national partners.
In 2021, the previous Government also announced £150 million of funding for crisis mental health facilities and patient safety in mental health units. In January 2023, it was announced that £7 million of funding would be allocated to new mental health ambulances, with £143 million going towards 150 new projects, including schemes providing alternatives to A&E. That is welcome, but the stats show that, even with all that focus, the trend is worsening.
Despite all that work and prioritisation of funding, we have yet to hear anything substantial from this Government about what they are doing on suicide prevention. As we know from one example, training can make a difference. Samaritans reports from its rail team that, for every one life lost, it is estimated that six lives are saved by interventions made thanks to the training given to National Rail and rail operating staff. That is proof that things can be done.
Just yesterday it was World Suicide Prevention Day and the Prime Minister was asked twice about the topic. In response he said, first:
“May I also thank those dealing with suicide prevention? Probably everybody in this House knows someone who has taken their life. It touches all of us and we must do everything we can, together, to prevent suicide.”—[Official Report, 10 September 2025; Vol. 772, c. 862.]
Secondly, he said:
“I think that suicide prevention matters to everybody in this House. I will reaffirm our commitment and I will work across the House with all Members to deal with suicide prevention.”—[Official Report, 10 September 2025; Vol. 772, c. 868.]
Those are positive, warm words from the Prime Minister, which we are all pleased to hear. However, I think that we, across this House and among the public, would be interested in hearing the tangible actions taken by this Government after one year in office. Will the Minister provide an update on what direct, practical steps this Government are taking on suicide prevention, including the implementation of the recommendations in the strategy? What points—for example, disparities in the difference across ethnicities and races in the UK—are being addressed?
I know that the Government have been consulting on a wide range of issues, particularly when it comes to men’s health and the men’s health strategy. I have been shining a light on those issues since I was elected in 2019, so I thank the Government for taking that important step forward. I understand that the Government are due to publish the mental health strategy and I commend them for that. Indeed, I note than in an Adjournment debate earlier this year, the Minister for Care stated:
“In November, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care brought together leading campaigners, experts and the Premier League to gather ideas and inform our strategy and our 10-year health plan. We take suicide prevention extremely seriously, because every suicide is a tragedy that has a devastating and enduring impact on families, friends and communities.”—[Official Report, 24 March 2025; Vol. 764, c. 757.]
His Majesty’s Opposition welcome that step forward, but in looking at the 10-year plan, I note that suicide is mentioned only three times. I think that everyone here hopes to see it feature heavily in the upcoming men’s health strategy. Will the Minister provide an update on timescales for the strategy and how it will consider suicide prevention?
Will the Government look at the prospect of a Minister for men and boys if the evidence points in that direction? We have a Minister for Women, as we believe that women have different problems across society. By that very logic, men and boys have different needs too. If we are to go down the route of segregating policies on sex, there appears to be a compelling argument to have a men’s Minister to work across Departments. That cannot be starker if we consider that for every woman who dies by suicide in the UK three men die.
Another achievement by the previous Government was the launch of the suicide prevention grant fund, as we have heard, providing £10 million to 79 organisations between August 2023 and March 2025. In my constituency, the charity First Step Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland received £76,845 and the grant was used to improve specialist counselling work in prisons and to build on pilot projects. It is therefore a regret that the suicide prevention grant came to an end in March 2025 and has yet to be renewed or replaced. In response to a written question in April, the Minister for Care stated:
“There are currently no plans to run another grant fund.”
Will the Minister explain the basis behind the decision earlier this year not to renew or replace the suicide prevention grant fund, and what alternative provision, if any, is being provided?
Liz Twist
I thank the shadow Minister for his comments. There is no question but that we all want to work together to achieve the best outcome. May I remind him, however, that the £10 million voluntary services grant was a one-off grant and that the last Government failed to renew the funding—the £57.1 million that was mentioned—for local authorities’ prevention work?
Dr Evans
I thank the hon. Lady for all the work she does with the APPG. I am looking holistically at the different parts of what we are trying to do in this space. I have already outlined all the funding that the previous Government put in, and I will come on to some of the other problems, such as the national insurance rise, because she will know that they will have a devastating impact.
At the time, the Minister also stated:
“We will be evaluating the impact of the fund, and the services that have been provided by the grant-funded organisations. Learning from this evaluation will help to inform…the Government’s mission to reduce the lives lost to suicide.”
Could the Minister provide further details about that evaluation, such as when it will be completed and whether the Government would reconsider their decision to end the grant funding if the results show that it has had a positive impact in supporting suicide prevention?
Charities were not exempted from the increase in employer national insurance contributions in the Budget. That has significantly hampered their financial situation. We just have to listen to what the Samaritans said in response to the spending review last year:
“The reality is that funding for suicide prevention has dwindled down to next to nothing. To deliver our life-saving work, charities are reliant on donations—on the generosity of the public. And this is even more precarious at a time when many people across the country are facing economic hardship.”
I point that out not to score political points, but to draw attention to the fact that the Labour Government need to set a direction and plan to deal with the leading killer of men and women under the age of 30.
In closing, I want to recognise that yesterday was World Suicide Prevention Day. Every year, 720,000 people across the world take their own lives. The theme this year was, “Changing the Narrative on Suicide”. It calls on us all to challenge harmful myths, reduce stigma and foster open, compassionate conversations about suicide. That leads me to where I started: if men do not know their value, if they do not know they have someone to confide in and if they do not truly believe that we care, we will not break the cycle, we will not make a difference and, ultimately, we will not save lives. That is the challenge laid before society, this House and, ultimately, this Government.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
I believe we have a new Minister, Dr Zubir Ahmed—congratulations on the promotion and welcome to the Dispatch Box. Just in case you need to know, we have been touched by young male suicide in my constituency of Sussex Weald, so I will be listening closely to your response.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Dr Zubir Ahmed)
It is an honour to respond on behalf of my hon. Friend the Mental Health Minister and the Government on this uniquely emotive topic that impacts every community. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) for giving us the opportunity to have this debate the day after World Suicide Prevention Day. I know that the whole House will join me in thanking him for channelling a deep amount of personal pain and sorrow into such a constructive debate. His family and constituents should be rightly proud.
I also want to commend all hon. Friends and hon. Members for their contributions, many of which have also come from a position of personal pain and experience. Often in our society it is the doctors and nurses who are perceived to be the lifesaver, but I am confident that every hon. Member who has taken part in the debate is a lifesaver, and their constituents should be rightly proud of all of them.
The hon. Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers) spoke about the mental health fund, and I would be delighted to set up a meeting with him and my colleague the Mental Health Minister to talk further about that. My hon. Friend the Member for Burton and Uttoxeter (Jacob Collier) asked for a meeting with his constituent Helena’s parents, and I would also be delighted to arrange that. The hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans), in his usual forensic manner, asked a number of questions that I hope I will address in my speech, but I am sure he will be forthcoming if there are any shortcomings in my answers.
The Government stood on a manifesto commitment to tackle the biggest killers, and suicide remains the leading cause of death for young people in this country. Every life lost to suicide is one too many. That is why our men’s health strategy, our plan for change and our 10-year health plan have given a renewed focus on prevention. Our aim is to get the NHS, Government Departments, academia and the private sector to intertwine like never before in a call to action.
Let me briefly set out the different strands of the work. First, we will target high-risk groups, including children and young people, middle-aged men and people known to have a history of self-harm. Secondly, we will expand the offer of our mental health emergency departments as part of our 10-year plan. Thirdly, we will imbibe a greater sense of responsibility and responsiveness in the digital and media sectors.
Too often people in crisis find themselves terrified and vulnerable in places that are least equipped to help them—for example, traditional A&E departments, facing long waits and often inadequate support. That is why we are committed to expanding mental health emergency departments. We are investing up to £120 million to bring the number of mental health emergency departments up to 85, while piloting an innovative model of mental health care for people with serious mental health needs. That will mean that people in their darkest moments can access immediate specialist care in safe and dignified spaces.
Given that only one third of people who die by suicide are in contact with mental health services, we are also working to make support easier to find and easier to navigate. Our shift from hospital to neighbourhood care in the 10-year plan is a big part of that, as is NHS England’s recently published “Staying Safe from Suicide” guidance, which is for all mental health practitioners to follow. It removes any uncertainty about the approach that they should take, moves them away from tick-box checklists and puts each patient and their individual circumstances at the centre of their care. Today, I can update the House that NHS England is launching an e-learning module as a practical resource to support the implementation of the guidance.
The whole country was horrified by the excellent portrayal of the issues currently affecting young men in the television show “Adolescence”. It is a work of fiction, but it shone a searing light on many of the struggles that young people face, including social isolation—ironically, in an age of social media and connectivity. That is why this Government are taking action by equipping a generation of young people with the tools to manage their mental health. By the end of this Parliament, every school in England will have access to a mental health support team.
But as we safeguard our children in schools, we cannot remain blind to the poisonous environment that children are exposed to online. As a father, I know that this is something that keeps every parent up at night. That is why we are promoting online safety and ensuring responsible media representations of issues relating to suicide and self-harm. Under the Government’s Online Safety Act, all in-scope services are now required to protect their users from illegal content, including illegal suicide and self-harm content. Beyond that, the strongest protections in the Act are for children who are now also protected from legal but harmful suicide and self-harm content.
We have seen too many tragic stories of children being bombarded with that content, often with fatal consequences. The onus is now on tech firms to recognise that that material has no place on their platforms or in our society. Ofcom is continuing to implement this regime, and it has recently published proposals regarding additional steps that should be taken to ensure that such content is not promoted in an algorithmic fashion, but we know that legislation is not enough.
I will now turn to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme about first responder training. First responders play an important part in preventing suicides, as they are often the first port of call for someone in distress and experiencing suicidal ideation. We will work closely with first responders, including the police and ambulance staff, to support suicide prevention efforts. Sometimes the first response to someone experiencing distress is provided by Government frontline services. That is why the suicide prevention strategy includes the training of frontline staff in some Departments. The Ministry of Justice is rolling out mandatory suicide awareness training to prison staff, and Department for Work and Pensions frontline staff are receiving mandatory training. The NHS is committed to ensuring that all healthcare professionals receive the necessary mental health training to meet the need of patients.
I will now turn to the question of neighbourhood mental health services. The international evidence base is robust, and we are currently testing the extent of the benefits of the model here. There will be an external evaluation of these pilots to determine their impact, particularly in terms of patient experience, access, reductions in pressure on existing services, and economic impact. We will follow the evidence and make an assessment for future roll-out.
I will now turn to the research into gender differences in suicide. We agree that research is hugely beneficial for making good-quality policy. That is why the ambitions outlined in the suicide prevention strategy for England cover five years and includes research on national trends and suicide rates in specific groups. We will continue to look for ways to improve our national real-time suspected suicide surveillance system so that we can pick up on these trends and act on them faster. We will draw on experts from our advisory groups and listen to people with lived experience to help us understand why we see some of these patterns and what can be done to address them.
I want to end by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme for bringing forward this debate. I also thank all other colleagues who have contributed to it, but I want particularly to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist) for her tireless campaigning since she was elected to this place eight years ago. In her maiden speech, she stood on the Opposition Benches and spoke very movingly about her husband. She then gave this House a call to arms, saying:
“I do not ask for sympathy; I ask for your support”.—[Official Report, 19 July 2017; Vol. 627, c. 907.]
She may not remember, but the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), was sitting behind her on that day. He is delighted, as I am, that we are now in a position to be able to answer that call.
Lee Pitcher
We have felt a very different kind of emotion in the Chamber this afternoon, compared with what we normally feel. The stories that have been shared have been stripped back, quite raw and very emotional. It really brings home to me the extent of the risk we are talking about here.
Let me thank all hon. Members for their contributions and for their honesty. I thank the Minister, the shadow Minister and the Liberal Democrat spokesperson. These kinds of debates are never easy, but what I have heard just shows the depth of commitment across the House to tackling suicide. What also gives me hope are the amazing organisations and volunteers who are out there every day trying to support our most vulnerable when they need it the most.
Suicide is a huge problem. We all know that there are no quick or easy solutions, and every one of us came here to challenge things like this and to make a difference. What we have heard today gives me renewed hope that change is possible. If we get it right, we can make a massive difference that will save lives. So, to use the phrase used earlier today by my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist), we do hear you, we do see you and we want to be here for you.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered suicide prevention.