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Armed Forces: Suicide

Volume 464: debated on Monday 8 October 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the incidence of suicide by (a) serving members of the armed forces, (b) serving members of the armed forces who have served in a theatre of conflict and (c) former members of the armed forces was in each year for which figures are available. (154041)

The Ministry of Defence has centrally compiled and verified records of coroner-confirmed suicides and open verdict deaths that have occurred among UK regular Service personnel while in service during the period 1984 to 2006. The information is summarised in the following table .

Information is also available on regular service personnel who were deployed to the conflicts in the Gulf (September 1990 to June 1991), Iraq (January 2003 to December 2006) and Afghanistan (October 2005 to December 2006), and have since died in service of coroner-confirmed suicide or open verdict deaths.

Information on suicides and open verdict deaths that may have occurred to service personnel after discharge from the services is not currently available.

Suicides and open verdict deaths1, UK regular armed forces, 1984 to 2006

All regular personnel

Regular personnel who had served on operations overseas 2, 3

Total

696

77

1984

27

1985

30

1986

44

1987

27

1988

41

1989

36

1990

50

1991

48

10

1992

37

9

1993

43

6

1994

35

3

1995

43

6

1996

31

6

1997

26

3

1998

19

4

1999

27

3

2000

36

3

2001

15

1

2002

14

3

2003

25

7

2004

19

7

2005

19

4

2006

4

2

1 The figures provided do not include any violent or unnatural deaths that have not yet been fully investigated by a coroner (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) or the Procurator Fiscal (Scotland). 2 Regular personnel who had served on operations overseas may have died while overseas or at any time after their return. 3 Regular personnel who had served on operations overseas in the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan