Suicide and attempted suicide statistics(FOI)

Request

Please can you provide me with:

A

How many suicides there have been in Jersey between March 2020 and March 2021; and

B

How many attempted suicides there have been in Jersey between March 2020 and March 2021.

Response

A

Information is available in the public domain in response to a previous Freedom of Information (FOI) request dated 22 January 2021. Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law has therefore been applied. Please see the following link:

Suicide Statistics (FOI)

In Jersey, all suicides are certified by a Coroner (Viscounts department) following an inquest and cannot be formally registered until the inquest is completed. The inquest process can take a considerable period of time, therefore analysis of deaths by suicide conducted by Public Health is deferred for around 18 months to two years to allow for all suicides in a period to be registered and statistically coded by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The annual mortality report for 2020 is scheduled to be completed and published by Public Health Intelligence in the summer of 2021. The report will include suicide analysis based on deaths that occurred in 2019, to account for delays in registration due to the inquest process.

B

Between 1 March 2020 and 31 March 2021 there were 46 attendances at the Emergency Department recorded as attempted suicide.

Article applied

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.