Navy: Death
(asked on 24th January 2017) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department's publication, UK armed forces suicide and open verdict deaths: 1984-2015, published on 31 March 2016, what the aggregated five-year averages were of deaths of members of the (a) Royal Navy and (b) other branches of the naval services that were classified as death by suicide or recorded as an open verdict.
The attached table provides an annual breakdown of coroner-confirmed suicides and open verdict deaths among Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel in calendar years 1984 to 2015. The numbers presented may change when outstanding coroner verdicts are returned on deaths that have occurred since 2007.
The figures presented are the actual number of suicide and open verdict deaths per year rather than five year average numbers. Suicide rates across the Services show a declining trend since the 1990s, similar to that seen in the UK general population. Rates among the UK Regular Armed Forces were lower than the UK general population1,2 throughout 1984-2015. The male suicide rate in the UK general population in 2014 was 16.8 per 100,000 compared to a UK Armed Forces male Tri-Service rate of 4 per 100,000.
1 Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2012) Suicide Rates in the United Kingdom, 2006 to 2010
2 Suicides in the United Kingdom 2013 Registrations, release 4 February 2016, ONS.