FOI REF: FOI-2023-1096
You asked
Could I ask for information regarding how many people have died in police custody in the UK since 2010 till 2022 and how many police officers have been killed on duty from 2010 till 2022?
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. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Deaths in police custody
Unfortunately, we do not hold mortality data relating to deaths in police custody. Our mortality data is taken from information received at the point of death registration and whilst place of death is recorded on the death certificate, we would not be able to ascertain if the deceased had been in police custody at the time of their death.
The Home Office (HO) may be better placed to answer this part of your request, as they have published the following reports on this topic:
- Deaths in police custody: progress update 2021 (accessible) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Deaths and serious incidents in police custody - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
They can be contacted on foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct may also be able to assist.
Deaths involving police officers whilst on duty
Our mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Whilst we do hold some analysis of mortality by occupational codes, we would be unable to advise if the deceased had been on duty at the time of their death as this is not recorded on the death certificate.
Data on occupation is coded using the Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2010). In all, there are 9 major groups of occupations (for example, skilled trades occupations); 25 sub-major groups (for example, skilled construction and building trades); 90 minor groups (for example, building finishing trades); and more than 350 individual occupations (for example, painters and decorators). Full lists of occupations used in the analysis are reported in the accompanying data tables, and descriptions of these can be found in ONS Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) Hierarchy. The report is structured so that it describes larger categories of occupations before moving on to describe risk in specific occupations. Please be made aware that we have limited information on ranks as per SOC coding and only the following breakdowns are held:
1172 Senior police officers
3312 Police officers (sergeant and below)
3315 Police community support officers
We have produced the following analysis on this topic previously:
- Deaths registered, by occupation code, 5-year age group and sex, England and Wales: 2021
- Deaths registered by occupation, code 5-year age group and sex 2020 in England and Wales
- Deaths registered, by occupation code, 5-year age group and sex, 2019, England and Wales
- Deaths Registrations by occupation code, 5-year age group and sex, 2018, England and Wales
- Deaths registered, by occupation code, 5-year age group and sex, 2011 to 2017, England and Wales
If you would like further analysis on this topic, we can create deaths by specific ICD-10 code and occupation as a user requested data set. Custom extracts and tabulations of mortality data are available to order from the HALE customer Services team.
User requested datasets are subject to disclosure control, legal frameworks, resources, and agreement to costs under the ONS Charging policy. If you would like to discuss a custom dataset, please contact Health.data@ons.gov.uk.