FOI REF: FOI/2022/4630
You asked
I am enquiring about the data concerning how many police officers and staff were infected with the coronavirus from March 2020 until the date of the most recently available data.
I would also appreciate data relating to the number of officers and staff who died from the virus, both with and without pre-existing medical conditions.
I am mainly enquiring about officers and staff in England and Wales.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Police officers infected with COVID-19
Our COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS) is a household survey that estimates the number of people testing positive for infection and for antibodies in the UK. Our statistics refer to the number of current COVID-19 infections within the population living in private residential households. We exclude those in hospitals, care homes and/or other communal establishments. In communal establishments, rates of COVID-19 infection are likely to be different.
Unfortunately, we do not hold data on the number of COVID-19 cases within police officers and staff. This part of your request may be better addressed by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, formerly Public Health England) who are responsible for NHS Test and Trace. They can be contacted via email at informationrights@ukhsa.gov.uk.
Further information and an overview of data about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other sources can be found in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights tool.
You might be interested in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, characteristics of people testing positive for COVID-19, UK: 16 Nov 2022. This analysis considers the likelihood of testing positive by characteristics such as work status, work sector, and work location.
You might also be interested in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey: characteristics of people testing positive for COVID-19 in England, May 2021 article, which explores the likelihood of testing positive for COVID-19 by occupation.
COVID-19 deaths by occupation
Data on occupation is coded using the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2010). In all, there are 9 major groups of occupations (for example, skilled trades occupations); 25 sub-major groups (for example, skilled construction and building trades); 90 minor groups (for example, building finishing trades); and more than 350 individual occupations (for example, painters and decorators). Full lists of occupations used in the analysis are reported in the accompanying data tables, and descriptions of these can be found in ONS Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Hierarchy.
The occupational codes for Police officers are:
- 1172 Senior Police officers
- 3312 Police Officers (sergeant and below)
- 3315 Police community support officers
This is the final publication Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by occupation, England and Wales which covers 2020 data. This publication is now discontinued. We do not hold this analysis including a breakdown of pre-existing conditions.
We can provide an update for 2021 and 2022, please note 2022 data is still provisional and therefore subject to change to allow the inclusion of late registrations, which are deaths that have been referred for Coroner investigation.
Our user requested data service is subject to disclosure controls, legal frameworks, resources and agreement to costs under the ONS Charging policy.
If you would like to obtain a quote for this work, please contact the Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight (HAPI) customer services team at Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.