FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3041
You asked
Please provide an update on average age of death all causes and those involving Covid for the period December 2020 to October 2021. This should be in the same format as the following for comparison purposes.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We have recently produced the information you have requested in the following dataset: Single year of age and average age of death of people whose death was due to or involved COVID-19. All causes deaths can be found in table 1. Please see table 2 for published data up to September. Data for October will be available on 23November 2021 on completion of analysis.
As such, this information 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.
If you would like to discuss your request further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.