FOI Reference: FOI/2021/2772/1
You asked
I would like copies of all death certificates where Covid-19 is stated as one of the reasons or the sole reason of death from March 2020 to today's date.
We said
Thank you for your request.
ONS does not have the legal power to release any individual death certificate, we only publish aggregated statistics. Whilst we hold information relating to the deaths of individuals, we will be unable to release this to you. Section 39 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) makes it an offence to release personal information. Personal information is any information held by the Board for statistical purposes that would identify an individual or a body corporate. This includes individuals that are deceased, as such S.44 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.
If you would like to obtain a copy of a specific death certificate, you can apply to the General Register Office online at https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp.
We do make death registration data available to approved researchers in a secure environment, for the purposes of carrying out statistical analysis, in a way that complies with our legal obligations. Information on how to apply for access is available on our website at https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/whatwedo/statistics/requestingstatistics/approvedresearcherscheme.