Recorded male suicides rise after rules of proof changed

MALE suicides rose more dramatically last year than at any point since records began, amid concern that deaths were being wrongly recorded because of a change to the standard of proof.

The UK male suicide rate rose for the first time since 2013 after 4,903 men killed themselves in 2018, a rate of 17.2 per 100,000 of the population, according to the Office for National Statistics. It marks an increase of 521 suicides on 2017 – the sharpest year-on-year rise since modern records began in 1981, and the biggest change since 1998.

The jump is partly explained by a change in the threshold of proof that a coroner or inquest jury is required to reach in order to record suicide while investigating an unnatural death.

In July 2018, the High Court ruled that evidence only needed to point towards suicide “on the balance of probabilities” rather than “beyond reasonable doubt”.

It was a move – upheld by the Court of Appeal this year – that signalled an expected rise in the recorded number of suicides, as for years the term was entrenched with stigma and fiercely resisted by some families and religious communities. The ruling followed a legal challenge against the inquest into the death of James Maughan, who was found hanged in a prison cell in Oxfordshire. The coroner concluded there was not enough evidence to make a finding of suicide beyond reasonable doubt – but allowed a jury to say it was the probable cause of death in a narrative conclusion.

The ONS said: “It is likely that lowering the standard of proof will result in an increased number of deaths recorded as suicide, possibly creating a discontinuity [from previous years].”

However, the authority said the upward trend had already been noticed before the rule change – suggesting other factors could be at play.

Elsewhere in the report, the suicide rate among 10- to 24-year-old females was found to have reached its highest level on record last year – 3.3 per 100,000, which amounted to an increase of 83 per cent since 2012.

Dr Antonis Kousoulis, the director for England and Wales at the Mental Health Foundation, said: “Among young women, some of the problems driving the increase in suicide may be violence and domestic abuse, along with the relentless pressures imposed by online culture, social media and pornography.”