HC Deb 18 March 1996 vol 274 c2W
Mr. Hanson

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many suicide verdicts have been recorded for(a) men and (b) women aged under 25 years in each of the last 20 years. [20803]

Mr. Sackville

Information on the age of persons whose deaths are the subject of an inquest is not collected centrally. The number of verdicts of suicide for males and females respectively returned at inquests held by coroners in England and Wales for the 20 years up to 1994, the last year for which figures are available, are given in the table. The information has been extracted from the annual series of Home Office Statistical Bulletins, "Statistics of deaths reported to Coroners, England and Wales", copies of which are in the Library.

Males Females
1975 2,178 1,539
1976 2,290 1,479
1977 2,340 1,569
1978 2,279 1,585
1979 2,539 1,606
1980 2,613 1,669
1981 2,807 1,664
1982 2,831 1,525
1983 2,778 1,464
1984 2,857 1,483
1985 2,944 1,452
1986 2,892 1,253
1987 2,840 1,147
1988 3,087 1,155
1989 2,773 984
1990 3,007 970
1991 2,968 870
1992 3,070 921
1993 2,875 865
1994 2,750 787