Following on from the release of this very depressing data at the beginning of the week
the Health Secretary then tried to put a gloss on them. Unfortunately for him he was caught out yet again.
On Tuesday, Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the number of suicides in England fell during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of suicide deaths registered in England did indeed fall between the first and second quarter of 2020. But these figures don’t show the number of deaths that actually happened during this period.
All suicides are investigated by a coroner, and it often takes around five months to hold an inquest before the death can be registered, meaning many suicides registered during the peak of the pandemic actually happened earlier this year or even back in 2019.
The figures quoted by Mr Hancock are even accompanied by a warning that they “cannot be used to show the number of suicides with a date of death in 2020, including those that occurred during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic”.
The ONS said that the fall in suicide registrations was likely due to the pressures on the coroner’s service.
