You asked
I was comparing some of the data between ONS and NHS and noticed some differences.
There have been 1250 cases so far where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death certificate and no positive COVID-19 test result was received.
At the moment this data is only broken down per region. Is there a further breakdown of this data by age and sex. Also is the same data available for deaths outside of hospitals?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for mortality statistics for England and Wales. 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.
Unfortunately, we would be unable to provide you with the a full breakdown of death certificates where COVID-19 was mentioned and no test has been carried out, broken down by age and sex at a lower geographical level. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill and judgement in order to create a bespoke ad hoc production. 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, under the Freedom of Information Act, we can supply the following information.
Using our Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales: deaths occurring in June 2020 bulletin, 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 most 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 done. Of the 46,736 deaths with an underlying cause of COVID-19, 3,763 (8.1%) were classified as "suspected" COVID-19 (U07.2) Including mentions, "suspected – no COVID-19 test" COVID-19 (U07.2) was recorded on 8.4% (4,251 deaths) of all deaths involving COVID-19.
This bulletin will be updated in September. Further information can be found on our Release Calendar.
Death registrations and occurrences by local authority and health board provides provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales, including deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19), by local authority, health board and place of death in the latest weeks for which data are available. This data set also reports deaths occurring in hospitals, care homes, private homes, hospices and other communal establishments.
Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional: week ending 7 August 2020 provides provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales, including deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, by age, sex and region, in the latest weeks for which data are available.