How death registrations are recorded and stored by ONS

You asked

Please provide me with the following details for the ONS database(s) and records recorded in it/them for registered deaths in England and Wales (a) for each calendar year since 1 January 2014 up to 31 December 2019, and (b) so far for calendar year 2020.

1. The name of the type of repository used to record such data

2. the name/description of all fields in which details were recorded

3. the name/description of the fields in Item 2 used to record cause of death and

4. an example of an entry in each of the fields given in item 3.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

Your request states information based on Death registrations, but as you also mention "Date of death". You will find this supplied as "date of occurrence" and these are produced in our weekly bulletin. See reference table Covid 19 E&W Comparisons.

1. The name of the type of repository used to record such data.

On 1 January 2014, we changed the software used to code cause of death to a package called IRIS (version 2013). The development of IRIS was supported by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union and is now managed by the IRIS Institute hosted by the German Institute of Medical Documentation and Information in Cologne.

IRIS software version 2013 incorporates all official updates to ICD-10 approved by WHO, which were timetabled for implementation before 2014. These updates include changes to the use of codes within the neoplasms (cancer) chapter (ICD-10 codes C00 to D48). In addition, a small number of changes were made to the coding of specific conditions, to bring previous coding practice in line with international coding rules and changes were made to the coding of neonatal deaths and stillbirths. Further information on IRIS is available. We have also published a study that looks into the impact of the coding changes on stillbirths and neonatal deaths. Further information on cause coding and the death registration process is available in our User Guide to mortality Statistics.

Death registrations are fed to ONS from the General Register Office and stored in an Oracle database called the Life Events Data Repository (LEDR).

2. The name/description of all fields in which details were recorded.

Please see the attached document named Deaths_SRS_DAP_Inc_Indentifiable 2019 (PDF, 918.2 kB) for details regarding all variables stored.

3. The name/description of the fields in Item 2 used to record cause of death.

The name/description of the fields used in your described Item 2 is "Underlying cause of death". To extract this data, we use the following codes FIC10UND variable. To find all other causes mentioned on the death certificate, these are stored under "ICD10001 – ICD10015" variables. We define the cause of death using the WHO International Classification of Diseases.

4. An example of an entry in each of the fields given in item 3.

Each ICD10 code corresponds with a cause of death. A list of these can be found in the WHO link above. For example:

FICUND: J10.0.

Cause of death: Influenza with pneumonia, seasonal influenza virus identified. Including: Influenzal (broncho) pneumonia, seasonal influenza virus identified

The LOTUS notes database is no longer used by the Health and Life Events business area for record management of requests for mortality data. All customer requests for mortality data are now held on a SharePoint database, with an archive of the Lotus Notes database available.