Soldiers’ fury after Whitehall squabbling blocks ‘lifesaving measure' to record veteran suicides rates

An investigation by JPIMedia Investigations last summer  – which prompted a national debate – revealed the government does not monitor how many former service personnel take their own lives, amid fears the number of cases is spiralling.

Allied nations like the US, Australia and Canada all record the number of veteran suicides closely, having found significant increases in the past decade.

Campaigners say official UK figures are now also vital to help traumatised war heroes.

Since we highlighted the issue, defence minister Tobias Ellwood announced the government would begin a study into suicide rates among veterans who previously served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He also said in November that it was his ambition ‘to understand from every coroner whether an individual death is a veteran or not’.

However, JPIMedia Investigations can now reveal a row at the heart of government over the issue, with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) claiming it is not feasible for coroners to record veteran suicides.

MPs on the defence select committee have also been keenly pursuing the issue of military mental health, publishing their first report last July. It recommended the Ministry of Defence work with the justice departments across the four UK nations to work out from existing suicide records whether someone had been a veteran.

A second report by the committee, due to be published on Monday, is expected to further press the government for progress.

Retired soldier Stephen James, co-founder of the Portsmouth-based forces group, All Call Signs – which hunts for missing veterans at risk of taking their lives – was sickened to hear the MoJ had ruled out support from coroners.

The former Private, who overcame his suicidal thoughts and is now campaigning nationally for added support – an effort that has seen his group receiving the backing of Prince Harry – said: ‘This is shocking. The suicide rate this year is already on track to be as bad, if not worse, than last year.

‘Every time there is a delay in finding out the true scale of the problem and getting that data, that’s another person we could have saved who dies and another family that loses someone.

‘If we can’t get real with the data it will always be a situation where you’re trying to fight a fire with a water pistol. It's just not enough.’

Jeff Williams, a former Royal Marine Sergeant Major and campaigner with the Birmingham-based group Veterans Against Suicide, said he was ‘devastated’ to hear that the MoJ has ruled out support from coroners.

He said: ‘I am not surprised but I am pretty devastated because a lot of people in the veterans community have hung their hats on this happening.

‘We were under the impression that this was in the late stages of being implemented and it wasn't going to be a problem.’

His group has recorded the suspected suicide of five veterans and four serving members of the forces so far this year, with 80 former and current service personnel believed to have taken their lives in 2018.

It should be straightforward for coroners to ask families if their loved ones were veterans, he said.

His organisation can verify ‘with one phone call’ whether someone was a veteran or not.

‘This is just a cop-out in my opinion,’ he said.

Dr Walter Busuttil, medical director of national veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress, said it is now up to to MPs to step in and make it a statutory responsibility on coroners to record veteran suicides.

‘If they want to record things properly then they are going to have to change the law,’ he said.

He said it sounded a viable idea for coroners' IT systems to be linked to MoD pension records, to verify if someone was a veteran.

‘There are precedents, it can be done,’ he said.

However, the MoJ said it was too complex for coroners to record veteran suicides, in particular because of the potential difficulties of accurately establishing a victim’s occupational history.

‘For this reason, there are no plans to require coroners to record this kind of information in the context of suicide conclusions,’ a spokesman said.

The MoD is considering how to respond to the setback.

An MoD spokeswoman added: ‘We take the well-being of all those who have served extremely seriously and we are currently considering how we can better understand the cohort of veterans who take their own lives.’

Last week Mr Ellwood, a former Royal Green Jackets Captain, offered a public apology to the grieving families of veterans and serving personnel who took their lives this year and last, vowing to fight on in addressing the issue.