You asked
Can you please provide me with the following:
1. The mortality rate for "Covid 19", influenza and pneumonia is in terms of a percentage is?
2. What data is being used to justify lockdowns?
3. How many secondary deaths have been caused by the lockdowns. I.e, cancelled treatments/screenings/hospital appointments, people not seeking medical advice die to fear incited by the media, poverty, suicide, etc.
4. Are the fines being issued for breach of "Covid restrictions" lawful?
5. Will vaccine passports become mandatory to be "free" from restrictions?
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the 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.
1. The mortality rate for "Covid 19", influenza and pneumonia is in terms of a percentage?
COVID-19
Between 1 January and 31 December 2020, 550,238 deaths occurred in England (and were registered by 9 January 2021). This was 50,882 more deaths than the five-year average (2015 to 2019) for January to December (10.2% higher). Of the 550,238 deaths that occurred, 12.9% were due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) (71,110 deaths).
In Wales, 36,308 deaths occurred in 2020 (and were registered by 9 January 2021), which was 2,794 more deaths than the five-year average (8.3% higher). COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death in 12.5% of all deaths that occurred (4,532 deaths).
Influenza and Pneumonia
We have not yet produced these calculations for influenza and pneumonia yet. However, we are looking to produce this in the future.
As such, this information is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.
However, we have published Deaths due to coronavirus (COVID-19) compared with deaths from influenza and pneumonia, England and Wales: deaths occurring between 1 January and 31 August 2020. This is a provisional bulletin with data up to 31 August 2020. This does not cover the information you have requested, but may be of interest to you.
2. What data is being used to justify lockdowns?
We are not involved in this process, and are therefore unable to comment. The Cabinet Office may be able to assist you with this enquiry. They can be contacted by email via foi-team@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
3. How many secondary deaths have been caused by the lockdowns. I.e, cancelled treatments/screenings/hospital appointments, people not seeking medical advice die to fear incited by the media, poverty, suicide, etc.
We produce mortality data which is derived from the death registration process.
Unfortunately, we do not collect the information you have requested. NHS Digital may be able to provide you with this information as they collect patient data, this may include cancelled treatments/ hospital appointments. They can be contacted at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.
4. Are the fines being issued for breach of "Covid restrictions" lawful?
We are unable to answer this request as this falls outside of the ONS remit. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) would be better placed to answer this query. They can be contacted at data.access@justice.gov.uk.
5. Will vaccine passports become mandatory to be "free" from restrictions?
This also falls outside of the ONS remit. The data collected and analysis produced by ONS is based on death registration data. We are unable to comment on this request as we do not collect source data related to this.
If you have any further questions regarding this enquiry, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.