Bobby Dean MP

Silence Between Sirens is a suicide-prevention cause for people who serve on the front line of the UK’s emergency services. Our goal is simple: no one in the emergency services should die by suicide. We exist to make it safe to speak up early, so that no one reaches breaking point alone.

We are writing to you as our Member of Parliament. Richard lives in Carshalton and is your constituent. We would value your help to raise this issue in Parliament, and to support our request to meet the Prime Minister.

Hannah Cooper founded the cause after 16 years in uniform. Richard served as a frontline response officer with the Metropolitan Police in Peckham, South London. We both know from the inside what the job asks of people. The cause is growing quickly. More than 12,000 frontline emergency services workers engage regularly with our content across our social channels. This summer we trained 44 blue light workers in Mental Health First Aid and suicide prevention, and supported 40 officers after the loss of a colleague.

What the job carries

Around 170,000 police officers, 41,000 firefighters and more than 3,500 volunteer coastguard rescue officers serve across the UK, alongside tens of thousands of paramedics and ambulance crew. When Mind surveyed more than 1,600 police, fire, ambulance and search and rescue staff and volunteers in England and Wales in 2016, 92% had experienced stress, low mood and poor mental health while working for the emergency services, and more than one in four (27%) had contemplated suicide.

The harm rarely comes from a single incident. It builds, shift after shift, carried quietly in the silence between incidents and taken home to families. Some people reach a point where suicide feels like the only way out. It is not. These deaths are preventable, and there are moments along the way when someone can be reached.

The gap

Deaths by suicide among emergency services personnel are not consistently recorded anywhere in the UK. Chief constables agreed mandatory, consistent recording of police suicides in April 2026. No national figure has yet been published. Responding to a parliamentary petition in May 2026, the government acknowledged that suicide data collection varies across emergency services. It committed to improvements for ambulance and police only. NHS staff data collection is not mandatory, and there is no fire service collection. For fire, ambulance and coastguard personnel, we can find no published national figure.

What evidence there is points to where support matters most. In September 2026 the Police Federation of England and Wales reported that 47 of 75 officer suicides it recorded between 2022 and 2025 (62.7%) involved officers who were under misconduct or criminal investigation at the time. That is an association, not a cause, but it shows where support is needed.

We welcome the £2.4 million the Home Office announced in July 2026 to expand mental health support for police officers and staff in England and Wales. It matters, and it is partial. Support is arranged service by service, and much of it engages late, after harm has been done. A police officer, a paramedic and a firefighter can attend the same incident in Sutton and go home to three very different levels of support.

What we are asking

1. Raise this in Parliament. We would be grateful if you would table a written question asking the Government:

↳ when the mandatory recording of police suicides agreed by chief constables in April 2026 will begin, and when the first figures will be published;

↳ what steps it will take to introduce consistent recording of staff suicides in ambulance, fire and rescue, and coastguard services. As the Liberal Democrat Shadow Leader of the House, you are also well placed to raise it at Business Questions and to ask for a debate on the mental health of emergency services personnel.

2. Support our request to meet the Prime Minister. We wrote to the Prime Minister on 7 October 2026 asking to meet him and the ministers responsible for each service. A letter from you in support of that request would carry real weight. A copy of our letter is attached.

3. A short meeting with you, in Carshalton or at Westminster, to set out what we are seeing on the ground and where support is missing.

We do not claim to have every answer. We do bring lived experience, a growing community across every service and materials ready to share. The people who serve Carshalton and Wallington, and the whole country, deserve support long before crisis. We would welcome the chance to meet at your earliest convenience.