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\u200BThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger CB, National Statistician, to The Lord Pearson of Rannoch, dated 15 June 2018.

Dear Lord Pearson,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question asking about the number of suicides since 2000 of separated fathers compared to those of separated mothers (HL8615).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes suicide rates for the UK, constituent countries, regions and local authorities in England and Wales in an annual bulletin[1].

The information we hold on deaths is limited to what is recorded on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death by a doctor, provided to the registrar by the informant at the time of death registration, or recorded by a coroner following their inquest into the cause and circumstances of the death. We can provide the number of suicides per year by legal marital status, but we have no available information on whether the deceased was (a) separated at the time of death, that is, living apart from their partner; or (b) was a father or mother.

Table 1 attached provides the numbers and crude rates per 100,00 persons of deaths due to suicide, by sex, for each year between 2000 and 2016 in England and Wales. The rates are broken down by marital status recorded at death. A copy has been placed in the House of Lords Library.

Yours sincerely,

John Pullinger

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2016registrations

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