FOI Reference: FOI/2021/3279
You asked
Can you send me the latest data of "Child and Infant Mortality in England & Wales" for 2020 and 2021 (in the form of a CSV or Excel file).
Alternatively, can you send me the link where I can find this
We said
Thank you for your request.
TheChild and infant mortality in England and Wales: 2019 release is the most up to date publication that we have published.
The 2020 publication will be released in February 2022. When a publication is confirmed, it is announced within our release calendar.
As such, the information you have requested for 2020 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. This exemption is subject to a public interest test. While we recognise the desirability of information being freely available, we also acknowledge that public authorities must have the freedom to be able to determine their own publication timetables. This allows them to deal with the necessary preparation, administration, and context of publication.
Furthermore, public interest is best served through the public having confidence that the information published by ONS is accurate and final. Release on an ad-hoc basis would not achieve this aim and will cause unnecessary confusion if they were to be misrepresented. In this case, exempting the information clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
Whilst we hold some child and infant mortality data for 2021, we are still in the data collection stages and we have not yet started analysis relating to this publication. Registration delays are often longer for infant deaths, which is why we are still waiting for data for 2021. In 2019, 10.5% of infant deaths were registered the following year, which is higher than all other deaths where 5.1% were registered in a different year. These delays are often due to referral to a coroner; 18.5% of infant deaths were certified by a coroner in 2019.
We may be able to create something for you based on your request for 2021 data as a bespoke analysis. This service falls out of the remit of the Freedom of Information Act as public authorities are not required to create information under FOIA. Such services would be subject to legal frameworks, disclosure controls, resources, and agreement of costs. If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further. Please note, there may be a charge for this work which would be subject to our charging policy. Please note that this underlying data held for 2021 is subject to change due to the registration delays mentioned above.