You asked

FOI/2021/2383

  1. I seek official data analysis and analytics outlining the true number of COVID-19 deaths in the UK, Scotland, Ireland and Wales since 2019 and the number of flu deaths across Britain England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales ) during the same period?

  2. I would also like to know if SARS-COVID-19 has been isolated yet to determine its validity as a contagious virus?

  3. I also seek record of how many burials and cremations have been registered across the UK over the past 5 years (month by month) and data from October 2020-May 2021 of official cremation/ burial number and the number of Covid-19 deaths attributed to Covid-19 without a secondary co-morbidity as a contributing factor of death?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

We are responsible for the production of Mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

Deaths involving COVID-19

We can however provide headline COVID-19 figures from March 2020 as part of our Deaths Registered Weekly publication. This information is held in table 4 of this dataset and is updated every Tuesday.

There are no recorded deaths involving COVID-19 Coronavirus in 2019.

Influenza Deaths

Influenza and pneumonia deaths for 2020 are recorded weekly in Figure 2 of the Deaths Registered Weekly in England and Wales publication.

There were 111,957 deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia registered in 2020.

There are 54,726 deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia registered up to and including 28th May 2021, (latest data available).

Influenza and pneumonia deaths as separate ICD-10 codes will be published in July 2021 as part of the Deaths Registered Series 2020. As such, the information you have requested 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. This exemption is subject to a public interest test. While we recognise the desirability of information being freely available, we also acknowledge that public authorities must have the freedom to be able to determine their own publication timetables. This allows them to deal with the necessary preparation, administration, and context of publication. Furthermore, public interest is best served through the public having confidence that the information published by ONS is accurate and final. Release on an ad-hoc basis would not achieve this aim and will cause unnecessary confusion if they were to be misrepresented. In this case, exempting the information clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure. Please see our Release Calendar for the finalised release date.

The NOMIS webservice provides mortality data by ICD-10 code for 2019-2013. The ICD-10 code for Influenza is J09-J11.

SARS/COVID-19 validity as contagious virus

We do not have access to this information and therefore consider it information not held. Public Health England may be better placed to assist. They can be contacted via email at: wn_coronavirus@phe.gov.uk for COVID-19 related queries, or enquiries@phe.gov.uk for regular enquiries.

Burials and Cremations

Please find attached previously published FOI which will answer your enquiry.

Burials and cremations in the UK 2019 to 2020 - Office for National Statistics