Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many local authorities have suicide prevention plans in place; and what steps he is taking to ensure that those plans are effective.

149 local authorities have a multi-agency suicide prevention plan in place. The remaining three local authorities are in the process of developing their plans, and Public Health England is supporting these final local authorities to have their plans in place as soon as possible.

The Department is working in collaboration with the local government sector to support areas to implement and embed their suicide prevention plans within their communities. The process started this month and will help to identify areas for improvement for local plans and areas of best practice which can be shared across the local government sector. This process will also be used to inform a programme of mutual support over the next two to three years to enable local areas to learn from each other and to further develop their plans.