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<p>Any suicide is a tragedy, and we take the welfare of our brave service men and
women extremely seriously.</p><p> </p><p>For data on suicides amongst veterans to
be of value, the information collected must be reliable, consistent and comprehensive.
It is not possible to achieve this through coroners’ inquest conclusions for a number
of practical and administrative reasons, including the parameters of the coroner’s
role.</p><p> </p><p>Ministry of Justice officials have talked to colleagues in the
Chief Coroner’s Office about the issues to do with coroners recording whether the
deceased had ever served in the armed forces.</p><p> </p><p>Ministers from the Ministry
of Justice and the Ministry of Defence have not explicitly discussed coroners accessing
information held by other government departments in suicide cases, but have on several
occasions discussed the issue of veterans in inquests. More widely, the Government
recognises the need to gather data on veterans in the criminal justice system. The
Ministry of Justice will continue to work with the Ministry of Defence and other government
departments to explore how we can further this objective.</p>
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