FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3723
You asked
Please supply how many of the COVID-19 related deaths reported during the last 6 calendar months until 20 January 2022 have included persons who had not been vaccinated at any stage of the current pandemic.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We hold the following analysis "Deaths involving COVID-19 by Vaccination Status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 31 December 2021". We use 21 days after vaccination as this is when the vaccine is deemed to be effective.
Please note this publication does not include deaths attributed to an adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Table 5 of this publication shows monthly age-standardised mortality rates by age-group and vaccination status for deaths involving COVID-19 from January to December 2021.
This includes the following vaccine status.
- unvaccinated
- vaccinated with 1 dose only, less than 21 days after vaccination
- vaccinated with 1 dose only, at least 21 days after vaccination
- vaccinated with 2 doses, less than 21 days after second vaccination
- vaccinated with 2 doses, at least 21 days after second vaccination
- vaccinated with 3 doses, less than 21 days after third or booster vaccination
- vaccinated with 3 doses, at least 21 days after third or booster vaccination
The data are for England only, as vaccinations data for Wales is not yet available to be linked to the mortality dataset and the Public Health Data Asset covers England only. Therefore, we consider data for Wales as information not held.
January 2022 data will be published in our next publication in March 2022.
As such, the information you have requested for 2022 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.