FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3301
You asked
In your report entitled "Deaths occurring between 2 January and 24 September 2021 edition of this dataset", the notes below the graph explain that a colon "denotes data are not available; age-specific rates are not provided for categories with fewer than 3 deaths". Is this wording meant to communicate that, in every instance where there is a colon, there were fewer than 3 deaths?
Please supply the missing data. If not, please explain why it would be unlawful to reveal the missing data and which specific clauses in the acts and regulations it would be breaking.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry regarding the Deaths by vaccination status in England 2 January and 24 September and the suppression of rates where deaths number less than 3.
As stated in the footnotes, a colon in this publication denotes data are not available; age-specific rates are not provided for categories with fewer than 3 deaths.
It is our practice not to calculate rates where there are small numbers of deaths in a cell, as rates based on such low numbers are susceptible to inaccurate interpretation. Age-standardised rates are not calculated where there are fewer than 10 deaths in a cell and crude rates are not calculated when there are fewer than 3 deaths in a cell; both of these are noted by (:). Rates that are based on fewer than 20 deaths are displayed in tables but are denoted by (u) as a warning to the user that the measure may be unreliable because of the small number of events.
This policy is stated clearly within section 15 of the User guide to mortality statistics.
In line with our Policy on protecting confidentiality in tables of birth and death statistics, we do not publish deaths with disaggregation such as age, specific cause, vaccination status or by a low geography as this could be disclosive and lead to identification of the deceased.
The specific regulations that ensure we must meet our duty to prevent unlawful disclosure is the Statistics and Registration Services Act 2007 (SRSA). Section 39 of the SRSA renders it a criminal offence to disclose information held by the Statistics Board for statistical purposes that would identify an individual. As we are prohibited by law from publishing statistics in which individuals can be identified, Section 44(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.