You asked
Please provid the following:
1) Please provide me with the number of people who died in England, Wales and Scotland (separately if these have been recorded separately) between February 1 2020 to June 30 2020 who had the cause of death recorded at I, as being from Covid-19.
2) Please provide me with the number of people who died in England, Wales and Scotland (separately if these have been recorded separately) between February 1 2020 to June 30 2020 who had Covid-19 not appearing at I but appearing at II, as being supplementary to the cause of death.
If it is possible, please provide a separate breakdown of people during the same period whose I cause of death was a respiratory illness such as pneumonia or bronchitis or COPD and Covid-19 also featured at I or II.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the provision of mortality data for England and Wales only. However, we have collaborated with the constituent countries to produce headline figures for the UK. These are available in the following publication: Provisional weekly deaths. If you would like further information regarding Scotland and Northern Ireland mortality data, please contact National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) via email at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Unfortunately, we would be unable to provide you with COVID-19 statistics broken down by I (as being from COVID-19 directly) and II (as COVID-19 being supplementary to the cause of death) between 1 February and 30 June 2020, nor a further breakdown by respiratory illness. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill and judgement in order to create bespoke analysis. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.
However, please see the following publication: Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales: deaths occurring in June 2020. This publication states that, between 1 March and 30 June 2020, there were 218,837 deaths that occurred in England and Wales and that were registered by 4 July 2020.
Over a fifth of these deaths (23.0%) involved the coronavirus (COVID-19) (50,335 deaths). The doctor certifying a death can list all causes in the chain of events that led to the death and pre-existing conditions that may have contributed to the death. Using this information, we determine an underlying cause of death. More information on this process can be found in our user guide. In the majority of cases (46,736 deaths, 92.8%) where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, it was found to be the underlying cause of death.
Our definition of COVID-19 includes some cases where the certifying doctor suspected the death involved COVID-19 but was not certain, for example, because no test was conducted. Of the 46,736 deaths with an underlying cause of COVID-19, 3,763 (8.1%) were classified as "suspected" COVID-19. Including mentions, "suspected" COVID-19 was recorded on 8.4% (4,251 deaths) of all deaths involving COVID-19.
Please note, from July 2020 onwards, due to a lower number of deaths involving COVID, we have not published the comparison of 'underlying' and 'involving' in the monthly deaths publication, however are continuing to monitor deaths involving COVID and with any new increase in the numbers we will look to how we can continue to publish insights and analysis to inform users.