FOI Reference: FOI/2022/3794
You asked
Please could I have answers to the following:
How many positive Covid 19 cases among Prison Service staff have been recorded across England & Wales since January 2020?
How many positive Covid 19 cases among Prisoners have been recorded across England & Wales since January 2020?
How many prisoner deaths where Covid 19 was the sole contributor have been recorded since January 2020?
How many prison staff deaths where Covid 19 was the sole contributor have been recorded since January 2020?
We said
Thank you for your request.
Infections:
The Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey (CIS) is a household survey that estimates the number of people testing positive for infection and for antibodies in the UK. Our statistics refer to the number of current COVID-19 infections within the population living in private residential households. We exclude those in hospitals, care homes and/or other communal establishments. In communal establishments, rates of COVID-19 infection are likely to be different.
We do not hold data on the number of COVID-19 cases within the Prison Service or among prisoners. You might be interested in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, characteristics of people testing positive for COVID-19, UK: 19 January 2022. This analysis considers the likelihood of testing positive by characteristics such as work status, work sector, and work location. You might also be interested in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey: characteristics of people testing positive for COVID-19 in England, 22 February 2021 article, which explores the likelihood of testing positive for COVID-19 by occupation.
Your request may be better addressed by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, formerly Public Health England) who are responsible for NHS Test and Trace. They can be contacted via email at informationrights@ukhsa.gov.uk.
Further information and an overview of data about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other sources can be found in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights tool.
Deaths:
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is based on the information collected at death registration.
Analysis of deaths involving COVID-19, by different occupational groups, among men and women aged 20 to 64 years in England and Wales are published here: Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by occupation, England and Wales: deaths registered between 9 March and 28 December 2020. This is the latest data available for deaths involving COVID by occupation. You can find figures for prison service officers (below principal officer) and senior officers in fire, ambulance, prison and related services, in Tables 6, 9 and 10.
If this does not meet your needs, we can create a custom output. Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate). Such enquiries can be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.
In case it is of interest, the latest numbers of deaths due to or involving COVID-19 are available for England and Wales, 2021 and 2022, in our latest weekly deaths publication. You can view the datasets here. Deaths where COVID-19 was recorded with no pre-existing condition are available in the Pre-existing conditions dataset, which is published as part of our Monthly mortality analysis. These publications do not hold information on deaths by occupation or where the place of occurrence was a prison.
Ministry of Justice or Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service may also be able to help with your enquiry as they produce monthly statistics providing data of COVID-19 in HM Prison and Probation Service in England and Wales. These reports are available here.
If you wish to discuss this further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.