Dog bite deaths and injuries in the last 5 years

FOI reference: FOI-2024-1726

You asked

Please can I be provided with the following information:

• How many dog bites causing injury has there been in the last five years in the UK?

• How many dog bites causing injury has there been in the last five years in England?

• How many dog bites directly resulting in death has there been in the last five years in the UK?

• How many dog bites directly resulting in death has there been in the last five years in England?

• Of all bites above, can I please be given a break down of the number of bites by breed.

We said

Thank you for your request.  

We do not hold any information on the number of people injured by a dog. Information on people hospitalised following a dog attack in the UK may available from NHS England, NHS Wales or Public Health Wales, NHS Inform, and the Department of Health for Northern Ireland.  

We are responsible for the production of mortality statistics for deaths registered in England and Wales. This is driven by information collected from death certificates 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.  

Our mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules.    

The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:   

a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury   

The accompanying table shows the number of deaths registered in England between 2019 and 2023 where the underlying cause of death was coded to ICD-10 code – W54 Bitten or struck by a dog. 

Causes of death are certified in most cases by a doctor, who records the sequence of medical conditions and relevant events leading to, or contributing to, the death, based on the deceased's healthcare records and other available information, such as laboratory tests or post-mortem investigation. Some deaths are certified by a coroner who determines the causes of death following an inquest, based on all the available evidence. It is unusual for wider contextual factors such as dog breed to be recorded on the death certificate, therefore we do not hold that information.