You asked
Please provide Coronavirus deaths by profession and sector (you last published this at the end of June this year). Please can this include a comparison of different public sector & key workers as well as those that work in different professions in the private sector. For example bus drivers, nurses, teachers, supermarket workers (as professions) or healthcare, social care, education, food retail (sector).
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
The following publication provides the most up to date analysis available for COVID-19 deaths by occupation: Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by occupation, England and Wales: deaths registered between 9 March and 25 May 2020.
This information will be updated to include deaths registered up to 28 December 2020. This is provisionally scheduled to be published on 25 January 2020:
As the requested information from June to December 2020 will be published in the future, this 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.