You asked
Please can I request under the freedom of information act why on the new 2021 data set for weekly deaths you are now only giving the weekly deaths where novel coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate and not the underlying cause as the data set in 2020 included both.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We believe that the dataset to which you are referring the following:
In 2020, all the numbers provided were based on the number of deaths where novel coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate. However, we reported the number of deaths 'due to' and 'involving' COVID-19 in Figure 2 of the report.
We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths where that illness was recorded as the underlying cause of death. We use the term "involving COVID-19" when referring to deaths that had that illness mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.
Some changes were made to the tables in 2021, deaths mentioning COVID-19 was no longer reported on the worksheet named 'Weekly figures 2021', but instead moved to a new sheet titled 'Weekly figures by cause'. We moved this to a new sheet in order to include more information on other causes (diseases of the respiratory system and influenza and pneumonia).
All other tables remain based on the number of deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate and have not been changed to the underlying cause.
If you would like to discuss this further then please contact us at health.data@ons.gov.uk