FOI Ref: FOI/2021/2807
You asked
Could you please explain why deaths from 27th December 2019 up until 1st Jan 2020 were included in the deaths (1st week of 2020)?
I would safely add that deaths from at least 24th/25th and 26th December 2019 would have been added to 27th December figures too due to the holidays. Potentially shifting approx 12000-15,000 - deaths into the start of 2020. Creating a swing of deaths from approx 24,000- 30,000 deaths between the years of 2019 & 2020. Creating false excess deaths in early 2020, the start of the claimed pandemic. This has never happened before in the 20 previous years according to ONS data.
Who was responsible within ONS for this?
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for producing mortality statistics for England and Wales, driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration.
In regards to your question, Week 1 of 2020 in our Deaths Registered Weekly publication began with 27 December 2019, as we use The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) definition of week numbers. Week 1 of any year is the week within which the first Thursday in January falls.
We have also published totals for 2020 running from 1 January to 31 December 2020 within our annual dataset, accessible via the following link:
We do not disclose the names of individuals, as this is personal data and therefore exempt under Section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).