§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many teenage suicides have occurred in South-West Surrey since 1995. [65575]
§ Ms HewittThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mrs. Virginia Bottomley, dated 18 January 1999:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your parliamentry question asking how many teenage suicides have occurred in South West Surrey since 1995.The data requested are shown in the table below.
Number of deaths certified as due to suicide and undetermined injury occurring to teenage residents of South West Surrey, 1995–97 Year of occurrence Number of suicides Number of undetermined deaths 1995 0 0 1996 0 0 1997 0 1 Notes:
1. Teenagers were identified as between 13 and 19 years of age.
2. South West Surrey was taken as the constituency of the same name.
3. The table includes deaths given an open verdict and coded to "death from injury and poisoning undetermined whether accidentally or purposely inflicted", in addition to those given a suicide verdict, as it is likely that most undetermined deaths among 'adults' (15 and over) are cases where the harm was self-inflicted but there was insufficient evidence to prove that the deceased deliberately intended to kill themselves.