FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3816
You asked
1) Please can you supply data from February 2020 until January 2022 showing deaths caused solely by Diabetes type 1 & type 2, where Diabetes type 1& type 2 is the only cause of death listed on the death certificate broken down age group, gender and ethnicity
2) Please can you supply data from February 2020 until January 2022 showing deaths caused solely by Heart attacks where Heart attack is the only cause of death listed on the death certificate broken down age group, gender and ethnicity
3) Please can you supply data from February 2020 until January 2022 showing deaths caused solely by Cancer where Cancer is the only cause of death listed on the death certificate broken down age group, gender and ethnicity
4) Please can you supply data from February 2020 until January 2022 showing deaths caused solely by Suicide , where suicide is the only cause of death listed on the death certificate broken down age group, gender and ethnicity
5) Please can you supply data from February 2020 until January 2022 showing deaths caused solely by Covid, where Covid is the only cause of death listed on the death certificate broken down age group, gender and ethnicity
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales. This is driven by information collected from death certificates at death registration.
Deaths by selected causes
We do not hold analysis for your requested causes and excluding any contributing factors, split by ages, sex, and ethnicity. Ethnicity is not collected at death registration because it is personal information that should be self-reported; it is possible that the informant for the deceased might not know, or provide, the correct information. Ethnicity is self-reported in census data and we have produced some analysis of COVID-19 deaths by ethnicity by linking death registration data to census information.
We are currently unable to produce bespoke analysis which includes ethnicity due to the complex data linkage methods involved. It is only currently released as part of our official COVID-19 outputs and produced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information to respond to requests. The requested information therefore is not held.
The following analysis provides the information we hold on mortality by ethnic group:
- COVID-19 deaths data by ethnic breakdown for England are available in this analysis: Updating ethnic contrasts in deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19), England
- We also hold this analysis for England and Wales: Updating ethnic contrasts in deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19), England and Wales
Suicide data
As mentioned previously, ethnicity is not recorded on the death certificate, so we do not hold the specific requested information regarding suicides. However, the following information may be useful to you.
Most suicide deaths require an inquest a coroner investigates the circumstances surrounding the death. The amount of time it takes to hold an inquest causes a lag between the date of death and the date of death registration, referred to as a registration delay. Registration delays for deaths caused by suicide tend to be 5 to 6 months on average.
We do hold raw data on occupation for some suicides that occurred in 2021. However, due to these registration delays, we have not yet completed analysis on this yet as the data we hold is not complete enough to be able to publish accurate suicide data for 2021.
However, we have published the annual dataset for Suicides in England and Wales. This dataset has various breakdowns for 2020 including rates, sex and age groups. This will be updated with 2021 suicide data once we have received further registrations. This publication is usually updated in the Autumn of each year.
Our most up-to-date analysis for suicide data are our quarterly provisional figures, accessible via the following link: Deaths caused by suicide by quarter in England. This provides suicides that have been registered quarterly in England up to 2020, but also includes provisional data for quarter 1, quarter 2 and quarter 3 of 2021. You could view from quarter 2 of 2020 up to quarter 3 of 2021 for suicides in England.
If you would like to discuss your request further, please contact health.data@ONS.gov.uk.