Suicide Reduction

Lord Kamall Excerpts

Monday 8th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie, for raising this important issue today. The Minister will be aware that the data on suicides shows some disparities: for example, men make up three-quarters of reported suicides and the north-east of England has a suicide rate nearly twice as high as that of London. What research are the Government aware of that explains such disparities? What is being done in local communities, especially by civil society organisations, to try to reduce the rates of suicide in those communities?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that there is disparity, which is often linked to priority risk factors, including, for example, financial difficulty, physical health, alcohol and drug abuse, harmful gambling, domestic abuse, social isolation and loneliness. Those priority risk factors are, sadly, more at play in the more disadvantaged areas to which the noble Lord referred. As we seek to develop further the effectiveness of the strategy—we have made great progress so far, but it is not enough—we need to ensure that the whole country is attended to and that we address the risk factors for suicide for everybody.