HC Deb 26 November 2002 vol 395 c185W
Mr. McNamara

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the result was of his recent review of the definition of a self-inflicted death; what actions he has taken in consequence; and what steps have been taken to compare the rate of suicides in each of Her Majesty's armed forces with information available from the Office for National Statistics from samples of the civilian population and appropriate comparator groups. [80686]

Dr. Moonie

The review of the statistical classification of deaths in the armed forces is still underway. Whilst this is going on, the category of "self inflicted deaths", which had been the basis of some Parliamentary Questions and some official statistics, will not be used. This category had included coroner confirmed suicides and open verdicts, broadly in line with the Office for National Statistics definition of suicide, but coroners' verdicts of accidental death and death by misadventure, together with unknown and outstanding verdicts, were also included. This wider "self inflicted" category was often misinterpreted as meaning suicide. One of the aims of the review is to remove such confusion by putting the definitions on the same footing as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) use. This will allow more meaningful comparison between military and civilian populations. Furthermore, in answering future questions specifically about the number of suicides, both coroner confirmed suicides and open verdicts will be shown. The Defence Analytical Services Agency are liaising with colleagues in the ONS, and intend to publish an analysis of trends and method of suicides among the armed forces compared to civilians in the first part of 2003.