Deaths involving electricity by place of occurrence from 1975 to 2004 and 2005 to 2021

FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3217

You asked

Please supply a record of all the electrical deaths in the UK.

Please split this into two categories:

1975 - 2004

2005 - present day

Each category to show:

Deaths in the home/domestic

Deaths in commercial

Deaths in industrial

Deaths in public places

Deaths on construction sites

We said

Thank you for your enquiry regarding deaths involving electricity by place of occurrence from 1975 - 2004 and 2005 - 2021.

All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) the coded mortality data available up to end of December 2019 is coded to version 2014 of the ICD10 framework. From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by World Health Organisation (WHO) as:

a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or

b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury

In England and Wales, deaths where deaths by exposure to electrical current  are mentioned on the death certificate are recorded with an ICD-10 codes of

• W85 Exposure to electric transmission lines
• W86 Exposure to other specified electric current
• W87 Exposure to other unspecified electric current

Using the NOMIS Webservice, we can provide the number of deaths due to the above ICD-10 codes from 2013 to 2020 in England and Wales.

NOMIS is unable to provide deaths by place of occurrence. For data before 2013 we would need to create a bespoke data request.

We can create a custom output for deaths by place of occurrence including private home, hospital, care home or other communal establishment (such as prison, young offenders' institution).

To create a custom output for a work place incident or commercial property, we can use a 4-digit ICD-10 code which would provide deaths where the underlying cause was an external cause or accidental injury by place of accident. We cannot identify all workplaces; we can only provide by the provided areas below:

This bespoke request would be subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs. Such enquiries would fall outside of the Freedom of Information regime and should be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.

As this information is already available to you via the bespoke analysis route, ONS considers that S21(1) applies to this request and the information does not have to be supplied under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act. S21(1) is an absolute exemption, and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied.