Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the scale of mental ill-health amongst the male population; and what plans his Department has to help reduce the number of deaths from male suicide.

‘Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey: Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, England, 2014’

Showed that one in five women (20.7%) and one in eight men (13.2%) were estimated to have symptoms of common mental health disorders.

From 2019/20, we are investing £57 million in suicide prevention through the NHS Long Term Plan. This will see investment in every area by 2023/24 to support local suicide prevention plans and establish suicide bereavement support services. We have ensured that this funding is testing different approaches to reaching men in local communities.

We also announced in May 2022 that 113 suicide prevention voluntary, community and social enterprises received a share of £5.4 million funding in 2021/22 to prevent suicide in high-risk groups, including men.

In addition, every local authority area has a suicide prevention plan in place, and the guidance we issued to local authorities highlights the importance of working across all local services, including the voluntary sector, to target high risk groups such as men.

The Department is working closely with the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group and wider stakeholders over the coming months to develop the new National Suicide Prevention Strategy. This will include discussions on issues relating to high-risk groups, such as men.