You asked
Please provide information on how many death certificates had starvation, malnourishment and/or inanition listed as a cause, in those over 60 years of age in the UK, for this year, Jan 2020 - to date.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
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.
The information you have requested will be published on our website in 2021 and will be available through our explorable data service via the following link: NOMIS. This has not yet been published, as death data for 2020 is not yet finalised.
As such, the information you have requested 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.
The following publications may be of interest to you. So far, we have published only leading causes of death which can be found in our Monthly Mortality Analysis publications and as part of our Death registrations not involving coronavirus (COVID-19): England and Wales.