You asked
Could you please provide information for the number of all deaths recorded in England during the dates of March 1st to December 31st 2020 where COVID-19 was the only cause of death and the deceased did not have any pre-existing.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Provisional numbers of deaths registered in 2020, from all causes and involving COVID-19 for England and Wales, can be found in the latest provisional weekly deaths publication. This publication includes a breakdown of deaths 'due to' COVID-19 (where it was recorded as the underlying cause of death) and deaths 'involving' COVID-19 (where it was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate). This breakdown is available in Figure 2 of the main article (data are available to download in excel format underneath the chart).
Numbers of deaths where COVID-19 was recorded as the sole condition on the death certificate by sex and five year age group, for March to June 2020, can be found here: Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales. We put this publication on hold when the number of deaths involving COVID-19 fell in Summer 2020, but due to the subsequent increase we will be releasing an update soon analysing data from July 2020 onwards. When a publication date is finalised it will be announced via our Release Calendar.
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. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.
We define a pre-existing condition as the last health condition mentioned on the first part of the death certificate when it came before the coronavirus (COVID-19) or was an independent contributory factor in the death, mentioned in part II. Where only COVID-19 was recorded on the death certificate, or COVID-19 and subsequent conditions caused by COVID-19 were recorded, we refer to these deaths as having "No pre-existing conditions". Of the 50,335 deaths that occurred in March to June 2020 involving COVID-19 in England and Wales, 45,859 (91.1%) had at least one pre-existing condition, while 4,476 (8.9%) had none.
We have continued to publish monthly mortality analysis for July to December 2020 but at present this doesn't include the number of deaths where COVID-19 was the sole condition, or analysis of pre-existing condition. This was updated to include January 2021 data on 25 February 2021.