A culture of secrecy obscures the island’s reporting of suicide figures, Parliament heard, as the latest statistics for births, marriages and deaths were tabled.

The 2015 report from the Registrar General listed 583 births, up 9 per cent from 2014; there were two stillbirths. Six babies were delivered at the homes of parents.

There were 466 recorded deaths — nine of them non-residents. The death rate of seven per thousand dropped from the 7.3 for the previous year.

Marriages went up by 6.7 per cent: there were 509, 53.4 per cent of which took place between non-residents.

The absence of figures on suicides was questioned by Walton Brown of the Progressive Labour Party, who said the island appeared to have “almost a conspiracy” not to report them.