Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether official statistics on suicides in armed forces veterans will be published annually.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
The Office for Veterans’ Affairs, Office for National Statistics and the Ministry of Defence have collaboratively developed a new approach for calculating veteran suicides in England and Wales.
This year, the ONS published suicide statistics for 2021 using this new approach and it intends to continue publishing veteran suicide stats on a yearly basis.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help reduce the suicide rate of male veterans under 25.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
All veterans can access bespoke National Health Service mental health support through Op COURAGE, which provides a complete mental health care pathway for veterans, who can benefit from personalised care plans, support and treatment both in and out of hours. Op COURAGE includes the High Intensity Service, which is for veterans in crisis about mental health, including at risk of suicide. We strongly encourage all veterans who need mental health support to contact Op COURAGE.
Veterans who may not wish to access Op COURAGE can also access the full suite of NHS support available to the public, including via the 24 hours seven days a week single point of access telephone lines for urgent NHS mental health support, which are in place in every area of the country. Alongside this, veterans can also access third sector support via many helplines, including the Samaritans and other suicide prevention helplines.
Additionally, every local authority has a suicide prevention plan in place, tailored to meet the needs of their local communities. The Government is also investing an additional £57 million in suicide prevention by 2023/24 through the NHS Long Term Plan to support local suicide prevention plans and the development of suicide bereavement services, which will enable more people to access the support they need, including veterans and their families. On 24 January 2023, we announced that we will be publishing a new National Suicide Prevention Strategy this year.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what additional support the Government is providing to Armed Forces charities to help increase the capacity and delivery of (a) mental health and (b) suicide prevention initiatives for veterans.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
This government will continue to prioritise supporting veterans with their mental health needs. There is a range of statutory support for veterans across the UK, including the bespoke mental health service for veterans in England: Op COURAGE.
Charities continue to play a vital role in helping veterans with their mental health, and I pay tribute to them for all they do. The Government provided £20m in 2021 to the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust to support Service charities comprising the £10m annual allocation plus extra £10m announced in the 2021 Budget. In addition, we provided £5m through the Afghanistan Veterans’ Fund. These funds included provision for initiatives to improve capacity in mental health and wellbeing provision, and suicide prevention.
Asked by: Margaret Ferrier (Independent - Rutherglen and Hamilton West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the new ONS method for recording and reporting veteran suicide, whether he plans to regularly publish this data.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
The Office for National Statistics will trial a new method of of recording veteran suicide from early 2023 by working closely with the Office for Veterans’ Affairs and the Ministry of Defence. As part of a 10-year retrospective study, analysis of veteran suicide data is expected to be completed by the ONS in 2023. Details on how and when this data might be published will be finalised following agreement between the MOD, ONS and OVA.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to help prevent suicide among veterans.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Veterans can access bespoke mental health support through Op COURAGE, which provides personalised care plans and access to support and treatment out of hours. Op COURAGE includes the High Intensity Service for veterans in mental health crises, including those at risk of suicide. As of 31 August, Op COURAGE has received over 24,000 referrals.
Additionally, NHS England and the Ministry of Defence have commissioned a review of research by Manchester University on suicide prevention, which will inform further options to prevent suicide among veterans. The study will investigate age-specific rates of suicide in veterans; identify risk factors and characteristics among veterans; and describe trends in suicide rates in veterans. The final report will be submitted in March 2023. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, we are investing an additional £57 million in suicide prevention by 2023/24, which will support local suicide prevention plans and the development of suicide bereavement services, including for veterans.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will take steps to encourage local authorities to increase their engagement with veterans charities to help inform local authority suicide prevention action plans.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We continue to work with local authorities to ensure that suicide prevention action plans remain effective and include at-risk groups, such as veterans.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to require coroners to keep records of whether the deceased is a military veteran when recording a verdict of suicide.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government takes the welfare of Armed Forces veterans very seriously and we are committed to improving our understanding of the risk of suicide and its prevalence among veterans.
The Office of Veteran Affairs has been working with the Ministry of Defence and the Office for National Statistics to link and exploit administrative data held by the various organisations that will enable the tracking of veteran suicides without creating additional duties for coroners. This approach will ensure that the most complete picture of veteran suicides is available to coroners and the public. It is expected that the first annual statistics will be published in 2024.
There are currently no plans to require coroners to keep records of whether the deceased is an Armed Forces veteran when recording a conclusion of suicide. Where a coroner has been informed that the deceased person was a veteran and considers that information about veteran status is relevant to a suicide which is being investigated, they can seek information from the Defence Inquests Unit in the Ministry of Defence. How a coroner uses any information received is for them to determine.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the Government’s plans to tackle suicide among veterans.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Government is clear that any suicide is a tragedy and is fully committed to tackling suicide among veterans. In September 2021, we announced a new method for recording veteran suicide. We expect the first reports from this data to be available in 2023.
Concurrent to that work, the MOD, ONS and OVA are working collaboratively to publish a 10-year lookback on veteran deaths through suicide, alcohol misuse and drug abuse. Having a better understanding of the number of veterans taking their own lives will help inform future policy and interventions in support of veterans.
Our ambition is to ensure that no veteran’s request for help goes unanswered. The veterans' mental health and wellbeing service, Op COURAGE, was allocated £17.8million funding last year and an extra £2.7million over the next three years. Further, we are supporting veteran-friendly accreditation for GPs and veteran-aware training for social work teams.
Additional funding has been awarded to service charities involved in supporting the mental health of veterans, such as through the £5million Afghanistan Veterans Fund, as well as an additional £10 million to the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the written ministerial statement, entitled, Recording and Reporting Suicides, HCWS299, 22 September 2021, whether his Department will take evidence from the Scottish Government in the process of developing a new method of reporting and recording veterans' suicides.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Office for Veterans’ Affairs is working with the Office for National Statistics to develop plans for the new method of reporting and recording veteran suicides. The OVA engages regularly with the Scottish Government on our data and research programme, including on the development of this new methodology. The Scottish Government are members of the OVA and MoD led Veterans and Covenant Data Working Group, which brings together analysts from across government to collaborate and share best practice.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many veterans have committed suicide while waiting on a final decision from a War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Tribunal.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.