FOI Ref: FOI/2021/2756
You asked
Please supply a breakdown of those who were under the age of 18 who sadly passed away from COVID-19 or are believed to have passed away from COVID-19, broken down to the various ages?
I am interested to understand the population breakdown, for what could be each variant and how it's affecting those persons under 18.
Please supply the ethnic groups, this would also be helpful, along with the sex if available.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. For Scotland and Northern Ireland statistics, please contact National Records Scotland and NISRA respectively.
We hold analysis showing a weekly breakdown of COVID-19 deaths by age group and sex in our weekly deaths bulletin. These figures can be viewed in the 'Covid-19 -- Weekly registrations' table in the 2020 and 2021 datasets. The age breakdown in this dataset are split by five-year age group. Here are the totals from 2020 to 2021.
2021 deaths involving COVID-19 under 20 years old(up to 6 August 2021) - 25
2020 deaths involving COVID-19 under 20 years old - 20
Unfortunately, we do not hold information on COVID-19 variants, as this information is not provided to on the death certificate. NHS Digital, may be better placed to assist with this request. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.
We have produced a dataset which provides an insight into COVID-19 deaths by ethnicity, from 24 January 2020 to 31 March 2021. This contains a broad age group between years 30 to 100.
We would be unable to disclose COVID-19 deaths by ethnicity for smaller age groups and sex owing to the small numbers that would be involved, as this would constitute personal information. Section 39 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) renders it an offence to disclose information held by the Statistics Board for statistical purposes that would identify an individual or a body corporate. As we are prohibited by law from publishing statistics in which individuals can be identified, we find that Section 44 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies. Section 44 is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied.
You may also be interest in further details in our disclosure control policy, accessible via the following link: Policy on protecting confidentiality in tables of birth and death statistics.
If you would like to discuss this request further, please contact.health.data@ons.gov.uk.