You asked
I'd really like to know how many people very sadly passed away due to influenza as the cause of death during the whole 2020 year please.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for producing mortality statistics 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.
All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) the coded mortality data available up to end of December 2019 is coded to version 2014 of the ICD10 framework. From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
Unfortunately, we do not have the statistics for England and Wales published exactly as you have requested. Please see below for our published data.
Figure 2 of our deaths registered weekly bulletin shows the number of deaths from 2020 up to 1 January 2021 due to influenza and pneumonia and the number of deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia. "Due to" refers only to deaths where Influenza and Pneumonia was recorded as the underlying cause of death and "involving" referring to deaths that had Influenza and Pneumonia mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not. Please see the 'download data' option at the bottom of Figure 2 for these statistics.
We have summed the weekly totals for you for you:
- Deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia (underlying or secondary cause): 111,957
- Deaths due to Influenza and Pneumonia (underlying cause): 20,523
Data showing deaths from influenza and pneumonia separately will be published as part of our annual deaths publication, which is expected to be released in summer 2021.
As such, the information you have requested 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 these statistics further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.