National Suicide Prevention Standard Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Graham Stringer
Main Page: Graham Stringer (Labour - Blackley and Middleton South)Department Debates - View all Graham Stringer's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
National Suicide Prevention Standard
Graham Stringer Excerpts(1 day, 12 hours ago)
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Graham Stringer (in the Chair)
I remind hon. Members that they may make a speech only with the prior permission of the Member in charge and the Minister. I have received no information that such permission has been given. As is the convention for 30-minute debates, there will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up.
Liz Twist (Blaydon and Consett) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered Government support for businesses implementing National Suicide Prevention Standard BS 30480.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. This debate is about a risk we often overlook in our workplaces, but which can have a great impact on families, work colleagues and a much wider group of people. We have rigorous standards for fire safety and electrical wiring, and for hard hats on construction sites. We accept those as the cost of doing business safely yet, until now, we have had no such road map for the most complex safety risk of all: the mental health and lives of our employees.
Research shows that one in four adults has contemplated suicide, and one in 13 has attempted it. For every suicide death, at least 135 people, including colleagues, clients and communities alike, are directly or indirectly affected. Suicide is the leading cause of death for men under the age of 50. According to the Office for National Statistics, it was the leading cause of death for males and females aged 20 to 34 in the UK for all years observed, accounting for 27.1% of male deaths.
Suicide touches nearly every workplace, yet most organisations lack the tools to address the emotional aftermath.