§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many suicides of young men aged 15 to 24 years there were in each year from 1979; and if he will make a statement. [80052]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Paul Marsden, dated 7 November 2002:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning the number of suicides in young men aged 15 to 24 in each year since 1979. [80052]The most recent available mortality data are for the calendar year 2001. Figures for each year from 1979 to 2001 are given in the table below.
Number of deaths from suicide and undetermined whether purposely inflicted or not1 occurring in men aged 15 to 24, England and Wales, 1979 to 20012 Calendar year Number of deaths in men aged 15–24 1979 355 1980 353 1981 403 1982 365 1983 377 1984 407 1985 460 1986 491 1987 544 1988 618 1989 574 1990 623 1991 572 1992 571 1993 556 1994 530 1995 484 1996 451 1997 502 1998 461 1999 436 2000 398 2001 434 Notes: 1 The cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes E950–E959 and E980–E989 excluding E988.8 for the years 1979 to 2000, and, for the year 2001, the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes X60–X84 and Y10–Y34 excluding where the verdict was pending. 2 Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year from 1979 to 1992 and for deaths occurring in each calendar year from 1993 to 2001. 3 The introduction of ICD-10 for coding cause of death in 2001 means that data for suicide and undetermined whether purposely inflicted or not in this year are not comparable with data for earlier years. The introduction of ICD-10 has led to an apparent increase of 1 per cent. in the number of deaths coded to undetermined whether purposely inflicted or not. The figures should therefore be interpreted with caution. The effect of the change in classification in 2001 is described in a report published in May 2002.i i Office for National Statistics. Results of the ICD-10 bridge coding study, England and Wales, 1999. Health Statistics Quarterly 14 (2002), 75–83.