Live births and infant deaths by ward from 2015 to present

​FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4161

You asked

I'd be grateful if you could let me have the live birth numbers per ward in the London boroughs of Sutton and Croydon and, if possible the infant mortality rate in both boroughs on a ward basis. Please furnish the data for years 2015 until the present date.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

We have published the number of live births along with the numbers and mortality rates for infant deaths in the local authorities of Croydon and Sutton, for 2016 through to 2020 as part of our Child and Infant Mortality statistical bulletin. Please see table 1 below.

We also hold the following user-requested data analysis for live births by ward:

Live births by ward and local authority, England and Wales: 2019 - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Live births by electoral ward, England and Wales, 2016 - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

Live births by ward, England and Wales, 2015 - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

We can provide the number of live births by wards in Croydon and Sutton for 2017, 2018 and 2020 via our bespoke tabulations service. This is available to order from the Health Analysis and Life Event (HALE) Customer Services team. These extracts are subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and costs (where appropriate). Such enquiries can be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk. Births data for 2021 will be available from our bespoke services from July/August 2022.

Deaths data for 2021 at local authority level will be available in July 2022. Most ONS mortality publications capture deaths based on registrations, with a normal delay of around 5 days after death occurrence. However, in the case of infant deaths, this delay is much longer with many deaths occurring in a year different from (earlier than) the year it is registered. Please see our Child and infant mortality user guide for more information on infant registration delays.  As such, the data extract for 2021 data will not be taken until around the end of October 2022 for infant deaths that occurred in 2021. The data will then be published around February 2023 (provisional publication date). More information on calculation mortality rates can be found in section 15 here.

We are unable to release the numbers and rates of infant deaths by ward, as this information would pose a risk of disclosure, owing to the very small numbers involved. Therefore, in order to fulfil this request, we would be required to contradict our internal policy for keeping our mortality data confidential and keeping the risk of identification to an acceptable minimum. This policy is put in place to ensure that we can fulfil our statutory objective without prejudice.

We would also contradict our privacy notices promising the public confidentiality of the information disclosed to us for statistical purposes, which risks undermining public trust in our ability to keep their data safe. Furthermore, we must also consider the prejudice caused to us by a breach of Section 39 of the SRSA, whereby it is a criminal offence to disclose personal information.

These risks all would likely prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs, owing to the detrimental impact that a reduction in public trust and confidence in our commitment to confidentiality would have on our organisation's functions.

A reduction in public confidence in our ability to keep their personal information safe would inhibit our data acquisition processes, as a large amount of our statistical information is collected via voluntary surveys. Therefore, maintaining public trust and confidence is paramount to our functions. Undermining our promise to keep record-level information confidential also jeopardises the trust of our data suppliers. Losing their trust would render them unwilling to share data with us in the future. Limiting our data acquisition processes in this way would reduce the quality and value of our statistical information, as it would not be as accurate or representative of our society. Taking action that would cause a reduction in the quality and value of our statistical information would also contradict two of the core pillars in our Code of Practice for Statistics, which is at the centre of our public duties.

Therefore, this information is exempt under Section 36(4) of FOIA, whereby the requested information need not be released if doing so would, or would likely, prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs.

This exemption is a qualified exemption, and therefore subject to a public interest test.

We understand and appreciate the public interest in the transparency of our organisation regarding the information that we hold. However, the consequences of the prohibition of our organisation to collect statistical data from the public and other data suppliers would be detrimental to the public interest.

If we experienced a reduction in the number of avenues by which we can obtain new and up-to-date statistical information, this would significantly reduce the quality and value of our statistical releases. Following this, we would experience a reduction in public and governmental trust in our data, as they would no longer be able to rely on accurate, well-informed statistical data on which they can base their decisions. This applies to both personal decisions by private individuals, as well as policy decisions made by government officials. In order to truly benefit the public, policy decisions must be based on accurate and up-to-date information. Therefore, the release of the requested information would likely prejudice our function to produce statistics for the public good, which, in turn, would prejudice the public.