Army Secretariat
Army Headquarters
IDL 24 Blenheim Building
Marlborough Lines
Andover
Hampshire, SP11 8HJ
United Kingdom
Ref: FOI2021/04583
E-mail:
xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Website:
www.army.mod.uk
Mr David Gee
24 May 2021
request-751601-
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Dear Mr Gee,
Thank you for your email of 28 April requesting the following information:
“Can you please tell me what the suicide rate is in the army for those aged under 18,
relative to civilians of the same age?
I'm aware of this information:
https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.ser
vice.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ff
ile%2F972333%2F20210325_UK_AF_Suicide_National_Statistic_Accessible_Web_ready_
2021_O.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Ccio-
foi%40mod.gov.uk%7C1284aa34860f4212ee7908d90a4efb06%7Cbe7760ed5953484bae9
5d0a16dfa09e5%7C0%7C1%7C637552156599623190%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8
eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000
&sdata=fmIHCJ5qEwWhWqmzPcWoY%2BnesxjSCWvn92tm8wnLyKI%3D&rese
rved=0
But the above only calculates a suicide rate for the 16-19 age group, and I am interested in
the rate among 16 and 17 year olds, if known.”
I am treating your correspondence as a request for information under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 (FOIA). A search for the information has now been completed within the Ministry of
Defence, and I can confirm that all the information in scope of your request is held.
Between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2020, there were six coroner confirmed suicides
among UK regular army personnel aged under 18 (all of whom were male). This represents a rate
of 11 per 100,000 personnel for the 20-year period.
For the 20-year period, the risk of suicide among UK regular army males aged under 18 was the
same as the risk in males of the same age in the UK general population (SMR=189, 95%
Confidence Interval = 69-411). A Standardised Mortality Ratio (SMR) where the 95% confidence
interval encompasses 100 implies there is no statistically significant difference in rates when
comparing the UK regular armed forces population with the UK general population.
Under Section 16 of the Act (Advice and Assistance) you may wish to note the following:
1.
Defence Statistics Health compiles the Department’s authoritative deaths database for all UK
Armed Forces personnel who died whilst in Service going back to 1984. Information is compiled
from several internal and external sources from which we release several internal analyses and
external National Statistics Notices.
2.
When providing statistics on suicides, Defence Statistics Health rely exclusively on the
information provided by coroners in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland, and the
Procurator Fiscal in Scotland. This ensures the Department’s objectivity, as all accidental deaths
and those resulting from violent action must be referred to these officials for investigation. For sake
of brevity, these sources of information have been labelled collectively as “coroner’s verdicts”.
There is an obligation for all accidental deaths, and those resulting from violent action, to be
referred to these officials. Inquests are usually held within a few months of the death, but
occasionally a few years may elapse, therefore some recent deaths may not have clearly defined
causal information. In these cases, deaths are identified as waiting verdicts and are not included in
this response.
3.
The information presented includes coroner-confirmed suicides in line with the definition
used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the publication of National Statistics. The
National Statistics definition of suicide includes deaths given an underlying cause of intentional
self-harm or an injury/poisoning of undetermined intent. In England and Wales, it has been
customary to assume that most injuries and poisonings of undetermined intent are cases where
the harm was self-inflicted, but there was insufficient evidence to prove that the deceased
deliberately intended to kill themselves and thus given an open or narrative verdict by the coroner.
4.
All deaths are coded to the International Classification of Diseases 10th edition (ICD-10)
which is produced by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Information held in death certificates
is analysed and assigned the appropriate ICD code to ensure that deaths included are only those
which meet the National Statistics definition of Suicide and these may be a suicide, open verdict or
narrative verdict conclusion from the Coroner. The ICD-10 codes are what define suicides and are:
ICD-10 codes: X60-X84: intentional self harm; Y10-Y34d: injury or poisoning of undetermined
intent; Y87.0 and Y87.2e: sequelae of intentional self harm, injury or poisoning of undetermined
intent.
5.
Figures are for regular personnel only.
6.
Rates enable comparisons between groups and over time, taking account of the number of
personnel in a group (personnel at risk) at a point in time. The number of events (i.e. deaths) is
divided by the number of personnel at risk and multiplied by 100,000 to calculate the rate.
7.
To make comparisons between suicide rates in the UK armed forces and the UK general
population, an SMR is calculated which takes account of the different age structure in the two
populations. The SMR is the ratio of the number of deaths observed in the armed forces to the
number of deaths expected if the armed forces population had the same age specific rates as the
UK general population in each year. An SMR over (or under) 100 indicates a higher (or lower)
number of observed deaths than expected compared to the UK general population and represents
whether the armed forces are at an increased or decreased risk of death compared to the UK
population. An SMR of 100 implies there is no difference in rates when comparing the UK regular
armed forces population with the UK population. An SMR where the 95% confidence interval
encompasses 100 implies there is no statistically significant difference in rates when comparing the
UK regular armed forces population with the UK general population.
8.
For more information on calculating rates, SMRs and interpreting confidence intervals please
visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/military-deaths-in-service-statistics-background-
quality-reports
If you have any queries regarding the content of this letter, please contact this office in the first
instance.
If you wish to complain about the handling of your request, or the content of this response, you can
request an independent internal review by contacting the Information Rights Compliance team,
Ground Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail
xxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx).
Please note that any request for an internal review should be made within 40 working days of the
date of this response.
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may raise your complaint directly to the
Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Please note that the Information Commissioner will not normally investigate your case until the
MOD internal review process has been completed. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can be
found on the Commissioner's website at
https://ico.org.uk/. Yours sincerely,
Personnel 2
Army Secretariat
