Luke Akehurst

I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of suicide prevention training for fire and rescue services. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting time for this debate and all the hon. Members from across the House who supported the application. Today, I am backing the Samaritans’ “United with the frontline” campaign to call on the Government to ensure that every fire and rescue service in England has funded mandatory suicide prevention training for all its firefighters. I pay tribute to Samaritans, the UK and Ireland’s largest suicide prevention charity. Every 10 seconds, a Samaritans volunteer responds to a call for help. In 2025, that meant over 3.3 million calls. As well as the helpline, Samaritans works with people in community settings and prisons and provides training across different workplaces, including to fire services in England. Given its incredible service helping to save the lives of people at their most vulnerable, I believe that it is important that we, as policymakers, listen to the voice of Samaritans when deciding how we can best prevent lives being lost to suicide. Samaritans tells me of a stark picture of the situation today. Last year, 5,728 deaths by suicide were registered in England and the suicide rate reached its highest level in over 20 years. Clearly, there is more that this place can do to support people in their hour of need and prevent the death by suicide of our constituents.