Official figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for 2018 have showed a rise to 11.2 deaths from suicide per 100,000 people, up from 10.1 in 2017.

6,507 suicides were registered in Britain last year compared with 5,821 the previous year, a rise of 11.8 per cent.

The ONS found three-quarters of deaths from suicide registered in 2018 were of men, with 17.2 deaths from suicide per 100,000, up from 15.5 per 100,000 in 2017.

Those in their late 40s remain the age group with the highest suicide rate, but young men aged 20-24 and those aged 80-84 saw significant increases, along with young girls and women aged 10 to 24.

Scotland had the highest suicide rate with 16.1 deaths per 100,000 people and England the lowest, with 10.3 deaths per 100,000.

The ONS figures record only registered suicides and are likely to underestimate the actual number. However, a High Court ruling in July last year, upheld in the Court of Appeal, may have led to more suicide verdicts and account for some of the rise.

The figures released reinforce concerns about care for mental health and calls for more co-ordinated action across government, has been raised by clinicians and charities.

Of the 6155 people that took their own lives it has been established that 260 or 4.2{08402cc4e02dcaebae1e086294c932f9e8c0e4836b71c17abd5ce9cddb0123b9} did so on the railway.  This is a small but positive percentage decrease of 0.2{08402cc4e02dcaebae1e086294c932f9e8c0e4836b71c17abd5ce9cddb0123b9}.  Had the rate of those that chose to take their lives on the railway in 2017, 4.4{08402cc4e02dcaebae1e086294c932f9e8c0e4836b71c17abd5ce9cddb0123b9} carried over into 2018 there would have been 271 rail related suicides recorded, 11 more than there actually were.