Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for its policies of recent research from the University of Kent indicating that domestic abuse was a factor in one in three suicides in Kent between 2018 and 2024; and what steps she is taking to establish standardised national recording mechanisms to track domestic abuse as a contributing factor in suicide cases.

This Government is committed to tackling the most severe and heartbreaking outcomes of violence against women and girls, including suicides that occur following domestic abuse. We must do more to understand the link between suicide and domestic abuse, so that no life is lost to violence and abuse that could have been prevented.

The Home Office continues to build the evidence base on suicides that follow domestic abuse through funding the Domestic Homicide Project, to capture information on these deaths from all 43 police forces in England and Wales and identify how the response can be improved.

Across the five-year period from April 2020 to March 2025, 1,452 domestic abuse related deaths were recorded, with 553 (38%) classified as suspected victim suicides following domestic abuse. The latest report can be found online: https://www.vkpp.org.uk/vkpp-work/domestic-homicide-project/

The Home Office funds the organisation Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse to support families bereaved by suicide following domestic abuse. However, we recognise that more needs to be done understand the link between domestic abuse and suicide and ultimately prevent future deaths. ‘Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy’ sets out in full the Government’s plan to better understand and prevent all domestic abuse related deaths.