Asked by: Lord Eames (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the level of suicide among teenagers in the UK.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Office for National Statistics publishes annual statistics on suicide registrations for the United Kingdom, including age-specific suicide rates by five-year age groups. A table attached provides statistics for suicides in people aged 10-14 and 15-19 in the UK between 1981 and 2015, the latest data available, is attached due to the size of the data.
The Department leads delivery of the Cross-Government Suicide Prevention Strategy for England. Suicide prevention is a devolved matter in other UK countries.
The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness, which is commissioned by NHS England and supported by the Department, published a thematic review in 2016, Suicide by Children and Young People in England. The report identified ten common themes relating to suicides by people under 20 years of age:
- family factors such as mental illness;
- abuse and neglect;
- bereavement and experience of suicide;
- bullying;
- suicide-related internet use;
- academic pressures, especially related to exams;
- social isolation or withdrawal;
- physical health conditions that may have social impact;
- alcohol and illicit drugs; and
- mental ill health, self-harm and suicidal ideas.
Asked by: Lord Eames (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to improve mental health services for young people.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
We are making an additional £1.4 billion available up until 2020/21 to improve the provision of children and young people’s mental health services, including £150 million specifically to tackle eating disorders.
This funding is delivering a major system-wide transformation programme to improve access and make services more widely available across the country, and implementing the vision set out in Future in Mind. To this end all clinical commissioning groups working with their partners, developed transformation plans for children’s and young people’s mental health in 2015/16, incorporating them last year into their wider NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans. These set out how local agencies are working together to improve children and young people’s mental health across the full spectrum of need.
Later this year, the Government will publish a Green Paper on children and young people’s mental health focused on helping young people receive the best start in life. The Green Paper will have two core themes: preventing mental ill-health and ensuring better access to services.
Asked by: Lord Eames (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have had any discussions with the public health authorities in the Republic of Ireland regarding co-operation with health authorities in the United Kingdom on any threat to either jurisdiction by incoming passengers from areas where ebola is widespread at present; and if not, why not.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Jane Ellison, Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Public Health, had a discussion with Leo Varadkar, the Irish Health Minister, on 30 October where they discussed a number of issues around Ebola. In addition, Dr John Watson, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, had a general discussion on Ebola with his Irish counterparts on 11 November.
In addition, there are ongoing discussions at European Union level between officials in which both the Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom representatives participate.
Asked by: Lord Eames (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the government of the Republic of Ireland on measures to deal with those passengers entering either that country or the United Kingdom from areas where ebola is at present widespread.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Jane Ellison, Parliamentary under Secretary of State for Public Health, had a discussion with Leo Varadkar, the Irish Health Minister, on 30 October where they discussed a number of issues around Ebola. In addition, Dr John Watson, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, had a general discussion on Ebola with his Irish counterparts on 11 November.
In addition, there are ongoing discussions at European Union level between officials in which both the Republic of Ireland and United Kingdom representatives participate.