You asked
Could you send me the mortality data from England & Wales for the years 2019 to 2020 please.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
This information can be found on: Vital statistics in the UK: births, deaths and marriages. The latest data available is 2019.
Whilst the data has not yet been finalised for 2020, we have published a year end blog.
England and Wales which shows the above figure * https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2021/01/12/counting-deaths-involving-coronavirus-a-year-in-review/
Please note, 2020 data has not yet been finalised, and is due to be published in July 2021. This is to allow time for late registrations such as deaths which have been referred to Coroner's inquest to be included. For more information on late registrations and the median delay please see our Impact of registration delays on mortality statistics in England and Wales: 2019
As such, the information you have requested is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.