FOI ref: FOI/2023/4949
You asked
Please can you provide the numbers of prenatal deaths in England and Wales in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Our figures on perinatal mortality are based on all births and deaths regardless of gestational age, and all stillbirths registered at 24 weeks or more gestation.
Stillbirths
On 1 October 1992 the Stillbirth (Definition) Act 1992 came into force, altering the definition of a stillbirth to 24 or more weeks completed gestation, instead of 28 or more weeks completed gestation. See section 3.1 of User guide to child and infant mortality statistics.
Perinatal
Perinatal describes the period surrounding birth, and traditionally includes the time from fetal viability from about 24 weeks of pregnancy up to either 7 or 28 days of life.
Perinatal mortality
Fetal deaths after 24 completed weeks of gestation and death before 7 completed days.
Neonatal mortality
Death before the age of 28 completed days following live birth:
- Early neonatal – death under 7 days
- Late neonatal mortality is from 7 to 27 days.
Infant mortality
Deaths under 1 year of age.
Fully information is available in our User guide to child and infant mortality statistics and User guide to birth statistics.
We calculate the following rates and for England and Wales in the Child and infant mortality publication:
- stillbirth rate
- perinatal mortality rate
- early neonatal mortality rate
- neonatal mortality rate
- postneonatal mortality rate
- infant mortality rate
- age-specific child mortality rate
Data is available in this publication for the requested period of 2018 to 2021. Our most recent publication is for 2021 data, which was released on 1 March 2023. This will be updated with 2022 data in March 2024.
Stillbirths are published in our Births in England and Wales: summary tables, the latest data available is 2021. 2022 data is scheduled to be published in July 2023. The final publication date will be announced in the Release calendar.
As such, the information you have requested for 2022 is 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. 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.
For further information please contact Health.data@ons.gov.uk.