Suicide statistics (FOI)

Request

I would like the annual suicide rates for Jersey for the last five years including 2022 please. Please can you include demographic information such as suicides by age group and suicides by gender. 

Response

Information on suicide statistics from 2007 to 2020 is available on page 15 of the Jersey Mortality Statistics 2021 report on www.gov.je. Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. Please see the following link: 

Jersey Mortality Statistics 2021 (gov.je) 

Information in respect of suicides in 2021 is due to be published in September 2023, and data relating to 2022 will be published in September 2024, according to the usual schedule of mortality reporting. Inquests for deaths which may be suicide can take some time to be concluded, and as such, reporting in arrears for deaths by suicide is standard practice.  

Due to the small numbers involved, no age breakdown or gender will be provided. Release of the information requested could negatively impact living relatives or other connected individuals and it is considered that their right to privacy outweighs the public interest supporting the release of the information requested. It is therefore exempt under Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. 

Articles 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.

Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

3)      In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.