You asked
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from ONS. Please provide me with:
Anonymised raw data representing all death certificates which mention 'COVID-19' on the death certificate i.e. all data from all time (effectively early 2020), excepting any information which identifies the individual.
Anonymised raw data representing the full medical history of people (anonymised) corresponding to the above (request 1)
We said
Thank you for your request.
The mortality data published by ONS are derived from the formal process of death registration. For Scotland and Northern Ireland statistics please contact National Records Scotland and NISRA respectively.
Unfortunately we would be unable to to release the information requested. Even if we create a dataset containing raw data with direct identifiers removed, the information would still be identifiable. This is because combined with other information, it could be used to identify an individual or to learn something new about an identifiable individual and both of these instances would be a breach of s.39 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA). Consequently, this information is exempt from release under s.44 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), whereby information is exempt from release if the disclosure is prohibited by another enactment.
However, we do make death registration data available to approved researchers in a secure environment, for the purposes of carrying out statistical analysis. More information about how to apply to be an accredited researcher can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/whatwedo/statistics/requestingstatistics/approvedresearcherscheme
Also, if you would like to obtain a copy of a specific death certificate, you can apply to the General Register Office online at https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp
Unfortunately, we do not hold information regarding the full medical history of every person whose death certificate we receive.
However, please see the following information we have available regarding deaths from COVID-19, including details regarding underlying conditions:
Figure 2 of our Deaths registered weekly bulletin shows the number of deaths due to COVID-19 and the number of deaths involving COVID-19 with "due to" referring only to deaths where COVID-19 was recorded as the underlying cause of death and "involving" referring to deaths that had COVID-19 mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.
Please see the 'download data' option at the bottom of Figure 2.
Here are the summed totals for COVID-19 up to week ending 19 February 2021:
- Deaths involving COVID-19 (underlying or secondary cause): 128,077
- Deaths due to COVID-19 (underlying cause): 115,574
We have also been producing the following publication: Pre-existing conditions of people whose death was recorded with an underlying cause of COVID-19, deaths registered in 2020. This dataset can be found in section 7 of the Monthly mortality analysis bulletin. This dataset provides a greater insight into the leading underlying causes of death groups for deaths occurring in England and Wales in 2020 and will be updated quarterly.
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.